North Korean nuclear experts enjoy ‘no freedom of choice’

Muhammad Muzahidul Islam :

Without a ‘freedom of choice’ one can’t claim independence in life.

When a life lacks the ‘freedom of choice’ it can’t have the autonomy on it.

North Korean regime has been involved in some particular nuclear activities that pose threats to international peace and security, and these are illegal.

International sanctions have already been imposed on those activities.

The regime has developed, internally, a system to gather and collect brilliant students from different parts of the country to be nuclear scientists to engage in forbidden nuclear activities.

After becoming experts in this field, they are forced to work relentlessly for the illegal purpose of the regime.

Does the regime have, then, enough honour and respect to the ‘freedom of choice’ of those experts? Are the measures undertaken by the regime compliant with international human rights and other bindingstandards?

The recent report of Robert Collins has revealed the reality of North Korean nuclear scientists. Robert Collins was a former chief strategist for the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command who served in the United States Forces Korea for 31 years.

About this report, an important article (Exclusive: North Korean nuclear experts lead oppressive lives as “slaves to the bomb”, By Kim Eun Joong, Lee Jae-eun, 2024.05.10. 11:40) has recently been published in the Chosun Daily.

According to the said article “North Korean nuclear scientists have no autonomy over their lives, with their life paths set for them in almost every aspect – including research fields, housing, food, and marriage – from the time they are elementary school students.

In a society where failure is viewed as disloyalty, they live under dehumanizing conditions, forced to work relentlessly for the “task of the fatherland” until death.”

It is widely believed that North Korea, which is heavily investing in nuclear and missile development, favors its 10,000 nuclear scientists. Bur the reality is quite the opposite, according to an analysis by a Korean Peninsula expert based in Washington, DC Robert Collins, who served 31 years in the United States Forces Korea, including as the chief strategist for the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC), detailed the struggles of North Korean nuclear experts in his report “Slave to the Bomb” on May 10.

His report is based on testimonies from North Korean defectors he interviewed and various classified materials. “Outsiders assume that nuclear scientists are well-treated because nuclear energy is so important to Kim Jong Un and North Korea’s survival, but this is not the case,” Collins writes.

“With the supreme leader demanding the development of sophisticated weapons capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, nuclear scientists face a dangerous future with no way out but to succeed.”

The article further narratesthat ‘The report states, “Once a nuclear scientist achieves significant academic success in a particular research field, their professional fate is sealed.”

They must live a life dedicated to serving the Kim regime, and from then on, the only variables in their life are which nuclear facility they work for and the quality of their associated housing.

Marriage partners for these scientists are also de facto determined, leaving them with no “freedom of choice.”

Collins explains, “Those who express dissatisfaction are punished and deprived of various benefits.”

I would like to mention here that a state-sponsored discriminatory system is in operation in North Korea. On this discriminatory system,the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the situation of human rights in North Korea revealed in its report that “paragraph 32- The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea presents itself as a State where equality, non-discrimination and equal rights in all sectors have been fully achieved and implemented.

In reality, it is a rigidly stratified society with entrenched patterns of discrimination, although these are being modified to some extent by the transformative socioeconomic changes introduced by market forces and technological developments.

State-sponsored discrimination in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is pervasive, but is also shifting.

Discrimination is rooted in the songbun system, which classifies people on the basis of State-assigned social class and birth, and also includes consideration of political opinions and religion. Songbun intersects with gender-based discrimination, which is equally pervasive. Discrimination is also practised on the basis of disability, although there are signs that the State may have begun to address this particular issue.”

Scientists themselves sometimes are the victims of the songbun system when the workplaces are assigned to them. The said article further states that “The quality of life of North Korean nuclear scientists is heavily influenced by where they are assigned to work.

“There are over 100 nuclear facilities in North Korea, and around 40 of these are key facilities that must be addressed in any future denuclearization process,” according to the report. These include 15 nuclear research and supervision facilities, eight uranium mines, and five nuclear power plants and refineries.

The workplace is often assigned based on the scientist’s so-called “background” or family origins. The Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site in North Hamgyong Province is considered the least desirable workplace. Six nuclear tests from 2006 to 2017 were conducted at this site.”

It is expected that North Korea would refrain from nuclear activities that are forbidden under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and other international instruments; North Korea would refrain from engaging the scientists in such illegal activities disregarding their freedom of choice.

It is further expected that its measures should be compliant with the international human rights instruments; because it ratified six international human rights instruments including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

(The writer is barrister-at-law, human rights activist and advocate at Supreme Court of Bangladesh).