site.btaSofia Forum Looks at Human Rights Situation in North Korea

The state of human rights in North Korea is the topic of a diplomatic seminar in Sofia on Monday entitled "EU-North Korea Relations and the Path Forward". The seminar, organized by the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Bulgaria, aims to foster diplomacy by providing a platform to discuss measures and strategies that can shape the EU's approach to North Korea, the organisers said.

According to a study presented at the forum, North Korea ranks 193rd out of 195 countries according to the criterion of freedom, as a country ruled by one party and one dynastic family. According to the freedom of speech index, North Korea is ranked 180th, last in the world, and one of the ten countries in this category along with Eritrea, Myanmar and China. The country ranks 165th out of 167 in the democracy criterion and 152nd out of 163 in the world peace category.

Atlantic Club of Bulgaria President Solomon Passy said at the opening of the seminar that, unfortunately, North Korea is not talked about much in Bulgaria. North Korea, he said, is joining forces with Russia, China and Iran. In 2007, a small Bulgarian delegation undertook a diplomatic mission to North Korea, which ended in success, Passy said, adding that the people in their parliament spoke perfect Bulgarian because they were students who had studied in Bulgaria. Today we see North Korea in a much more dangerous position than 15 years ago, he noted.

Since 2022, North Korea has fired more than 17 ballistic missiles, Korean Ambassador to Bulgaria Jongin Bae said at the diplomatic seminar.

The regime in North Korea is similar to the one in Bulgaria in the period 1944-1989, MEP Andrey Kovatchev said at the forum. The disregard for human rights in North Korea has been noted in many EC resolutions. Both in North Korea and in Bulgaria in 1944-89, it was about totalitarian regimes that imposed punishments against individuals, and entire families considered a threat to the regime, the MEP added. He said knowledge on this topic should be passed on to the younger generation with a focus on human rights to prevent further atrocities against people around the world. That is why the European Parliament is developing many initiatives regarding the victims of totalitarian regimes around the world, including the one in North Korea.

Kovatchev also spoke about North Korea's ties with the regime in Russia and recalled that North Korea provided one million artillery shells to the criminal regime in the Kremlin for its fight against Ukraine. He stressed that the entire EU does not have the ability to produce for Ukraine what North Korea has produced. 

Journalist Georgi Milkov called on the free world to "bombard" North Korea not with weapons but with shows, reality formats, films and music.  He said people there will not risk their lives for political information, but yearn for any other. Five years ago, USB flash drives were the biggest means of communication in North Korea, much more desirable than cell phones and other technology, Milkov said. "North Koreans were using them not on computers but on their DVD devices to watch movies and entertainment programmes, which is not allowed and is being pursued by the authorities there."