Jee Heon A was in a North Korean detention centre where babies usually did not survive pregnancy and birth due to the extraordinarily harsh conditions.
In this case, the baby was born alive.
“The baby was crying as it was born; we were so curious, this was the first time we saw a baby being born. So we were watching this baby and we were so happy,” the woman told the commission.
“But suddenly we heard the footsteps. The security agent came in and this agent of the Bowibu [the North Korean State Security Department] said that … usually when a baby is born we would wash it in a bowl of water, but this agent told us to put the baby in the water upside down.
“So the mother was begging. ‘I was told that I would not be able to have the baby, but I actually got lucky and got pregnant so let me keep the baby, please forgive me’, but this agent kept beating this woman, the mother who just gave birth.
“And the baby, since it was just born, it was just crying. And the mother, with her shaking hands she picked up the baby and she put the baby face down in the water. The baby stopped crying and we saw this water bubble coming out of the mouth of the baby.
“And there was an old lady who helped with the labour, she picked up the baby from the bowl of water and left the room quietly. So those kind of things repeatedly happened.”
Michael Kirby. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Michael Kirby. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Michael Kirby. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
The United Nations panel gathered evidence for almost a year and heard hundreds of shocking stories as over 300 witnesses testified about murder, torture, rape, abductions, enslavement and starvation under the North Korean dictatorship.
The panel, led by Australia’s former High Court Justice Michael Kirby, has today released the damning report that catalogues systematic and appalling human rights abuses in North Korea.
It describes a vast network of secret prison camps where hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are believed to have died through starvation, execution or other means and recommends that the UN refer the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court.
When releasing the report, Kirby referred to the atrocities committed in world war two and the world’s failure to stop the atrocities committed by Hitler’s Germany and claims that it did not know the extent of the crimes.
“Now the international community does know,” Kirby said.
“There will be no excusing a failure of action because we didn’t know. It’s too long now. The suffering and the tears of the people of North Korea demand action.”
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