House debates

Monday, 23 February 2015

Private Members' Business

Human Rights: North Korea

12:13 pm

Photo of Craig LaundyCraig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes that the:

(1) United Nations commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) released its report in March 2014;

(2) report found that 'systemic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the DPRK, its institutions and officials' against its own people, including:

(a) violations of the:

  (i) freedoms of thought, expression and religion;

  (ii) freedom of movement and residence; and

  (iii) right to food and related aspects of the right to life;

(b) discrimination;

(c) arbitrary detention, torture, executions and prison camps; and

(d) abductions and enforced disappearances from other countries;

(3) report found that crimes against humanity have been committed in the DPRK 'pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State'; and

(4) Government:

(a) welcomes the United Nations Security Council's decision on 23 December 2014 to include a standing agenda item on the situation in the DPRK under which it can continue to consider the dire human rights situation; and

(b) continues to call on the DPRK to:

  (i) treat it citizens in accordance with human rights standards; and

  (ii) create the conditions for meaningful inter-Korean dialogue and Six Party Talks, including honouring DPRK commitments to denuclearise and demonstrating good faith, such as participating in inter-Korean family reunions.

It is an honour to move this motion and to talk on what is one of the worst human rights atrocities in the world today. We can speak in this place referencing the damning evidence and findings outlined in the report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which was released last year. Never before have we had the benefit of such a comprehensive, evidence-based report detailing the systematic and widespread human-rights violations in North Korea.

Before going further, I would like to commend the excellent work of the Hon. Michael Kirby as chair of this UN inquiry and the many others who I am sure contributed in putting this report together. The report makes for truly harrowing reading, reaching its carefully weighted conclusions on the testimony of hundreds of witnesses. Some of the most heinous crimes against humanity are listed in the findings, and these continue to be perpetrated against the people of North Korea by its institutions and officials to this day.

The report also notes the existence of a network of prison camps where as many as 120,000 North Korean citizens are held. Forced labour is a fact of life for the citizens of these camps. Prisoners are raped and forced to abort their unborn children. They are killed through deliberate starvation, torture and executions. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea estimates that over 400,000 people have already died in these prison camps.

It is also no secret that the North Korean society is tightly controlled through a program of indoctrination, fear and institutionalised discrimination. In the 2014 Freedom House report, North Korea was listed as 'not free' and given the worst rating in the three categories of freedom, civil liberties and political rights.

These recent reports add to the picture of widespread human rights abuses in North Korea that were outlined in the findings of this UN commission report. This is a situation that should be and regularly is condemned by this government and other states around the world. The Australian government regularly raises its concerns about shocking human rights abuses in North Korea, both in multilateral forums and bilaterally. On 23 September last year, Minister Bishop joined US Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign affairs ministers in New York to again draw the attention of the world to the appalling human rights abuses in North Korea. Australia's diplomatic representatives also raise these concerns directly with North Korean ministers and officials when they meet.

As a strong advocate for the promotion and protection of human rights and as a country deeply concerned by the continued oppression of North Korea's people, Australia has been a consistent supporter of the UN commission of inquiry. Australia co-sponsored the March 2013 Human Rights Council resolution that established the commission, and we also co-sponsored the 18 December UN General Assembly resolution that supported the recommendations of the commission's inquiry report.

I am especially pleased that, during Australia's term on the UN Security Council, we were able to lead efforts to have the terrible human rights situation in North Korea discussed by the council for the first time, on 22 December. As noted in this motion, and as a result of Australian diplomatic efforts, the situation in North Korea is now a permanent fixture on the Security Council's agenda.

We have been pleased to help lead increasing calls worldwide for improvements to the way the North Korean government treats its people. Of course, Australia's efforts in this area are wide ranging, and we have a long history of providing humanitarian aid and support to the people of North Korea. Australia has consistently provided humanitarian aid for North Koreans. In 2013-14, we provided $3 million for North Korean mothers and children through the UN World Food Program.

Australia also helps vulnerable people in North Korea in accordance with humanitarian aid and human rights principles. We know that far too many North Koreans, through no fault of their own, face dire circumstances and are severely malnourished. I would also point out that our provision of humanitarian aid is consistent with the commission of inquiry's recommendation that states not use provision of food to impose economic or political pressure on North Korea.

Australia strongly supports the commission's calls for accountability for the perpetrators of human-rights violations and the crimes against humanity. To this end, we co-sponsored the March 2014 Human Rights Council resolution. We also strongly supported the proposal that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should establish a human-rights field-monitoring office on North Korean violations, and I am pleased to hear that this office is due to open in Seoul next month. Australia will also be working to ensure that the upcoming Human Rights Council session in March passes a strong resolution on human rights in North Korea to continue the work of the commission of inquiry.

Going forward, Australia will continue to raise North Korea's poor human rights record with the North Korean government. We will also continue to strongly support access to North Koreans for human-rights monitors. With or without success, I thank those collecting evidence of North Korea's human rights violations. The commission of inquiry and the new field office undertake important work in the gathering of evidence by which North Korea's regime will inevitably be judged.

I am glad to see that the North Korean government consented, a year ago, to allowing 300 Koreans to participate in the first family reunions since 2010. That does not, however, diminish the fact that there are still 70,000 South Koreans awaiting reunions, and I along with my government colleagues appeal to the North Korean authorities to let these reunions take place before more members of divided families pass away.

The tensions prevailing on the Korean peninsula are deeply concerning, and I am sure all in this House encourage North Korea to return to the six-party talks with constructive proposals for denuclearisation. It is also vital that the North Korean regime engages meaningfully with South Korea in the trust-building dialogue which South Korean President Park has offered.

On a personal level, I was recently fortunate to assist in arranging a visit to my electorate of Reid by a team of North Korean deaf footballers. Supported by a strong local Korean community, the North Korean deaf football team travelled to Australia to play in their first friendly international game against Australia late last year. It was an inspiration to witness the endeavours of this group of young athletes, who are severely challenged on a personal level let alone by the huge challenges that life in North Korea present for everybody. It was particularly touching as I am the proud father of a hearing impaired child.

I am especially thankful to my local Korean community representatives, who have been tirelessly working with me and my office in ensuring that I am up to date with the most recent announcements and progress on this issue. In particular, I would like to thank Cr Sang Ok; Tae Hyun Kim; the North Korean Human Rights Advancement Association in Australia, a recently established NGO promoting the advancement of human rights in North Korea; and Susan Lee and all of her committee at the National Unification Advisory Council in Australia for the many hours they have spent with me in recent months in putting together this motion.

I had the honour of having the Minister for Foreign Affairs in my electorate towards the end of last year, not long after this report was released. My local Korean community, a strong, vibrant and proud community, many of whose members have links back to North and South Korea, arranged for half-a-dozen refugees who have been in the labour camps to tell the foreign minister, members of my local community and me their very personal stories. They told us about how they escaped, what their life looked like and what they went through. You cannot sit and listen to these stories without breaking into tears. The foreign minister was no exception to that, nor was I or anyone else in that room. It was probably one of the most powerful hours I have spent since having the honour of representing the people of Reid. It is said that to represent their community a member of federal parliament must understand their community. I thank my local Korean community, centred predominantly around Strathfield and Lidcombe, for arranging that experience for the foreign minister and me that day. That is the motive behind not only this motion but the need for this government and the opposition to do more, in a bipartisan way, with all around the globe. I again thank Sang Ok, the newly formed North Korean human rights association and Susan Lee and her committee. I look forward to continuing to work with them. I hope they keep presenting me with powerful examples by which we can advocate on their behalf.

Photo of Jane PrenticeJane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

12:23 pm

Photo of Michael DanbyMichael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

I second the motion. In 2009, I organised an international conference on human rights in North Korea. It took place at the Hyatt hotel in Melbourne. It was opened by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. I hope it helped the change in the international atmosphere that has taken place on attitudes to the gross abuse of human rights in North Korea. In my view, it is the worst human rights situation in the world. That is a big call, but the number of concentration camps and the hundreds of thousands of people who incarcerated in them and the general terror under which people in North Korea live make it worthy of that description.

I welcome Judge Kirby's important inquiry. I cannot speak highly enough of his conduct in this inquiry. It is amazing—which is a bit of an understatement—that the Security Council passed a resolution based on his inquiry, given the automatic majorities that take place at the Security Council. It just shows the level of detail and the hard work that a person of his standing was able to bring, in almost impossible circumstances, to the UN Security Council to actually get it to pass a resolution at the Security Council level on human rights.

My opposition to the Gulag-style system of North Korea's concentration camps has been long standing. I have spoken on this since I became a member of parliament in 1998. In 2009, I hosted in conjunction with the South Korean organisation, Citizens' Alliance, a great organisation which supports North Korean refugees coming to South Korea, the ninth international conference on human rights in North Korea—a phenomenon which I think is partially responsible for this very important change in world attitudes to the gross abuses of human rights in North Korea—. It was a bit of an ambitious project for an individual member of parliament; nonetheless, we pulled it off. It was the first of these international conferences opened by a foreign minister and was attended by 250 domestic and international delegates, including government officials, human rights activists and the previous special rapporteur of the UN on human rights in North Korea.

The conference was marked by pessimism and frustration. We discussed how North Korea continues to demand and receive large amounts of aid as a price for its behaviour in the nuclear stakes and its brinkmanship on the Korean peninsula, but that did not seem to improve its behaviour with regard to its own citizens. Six years have passed since the conference, and there is, at least, a changed international atmosphere about the internal situation in North Korea. That is a very good thing and a positive development, because it did not happen before then. The situation on the ground is probably as bad as ever, but at least people outside around the world, particularly in Asia, have focused on this terrible persecution.

We heard shocking stories of the plight of North Korea's people who are starved, regimented, deprived of the most basic rights, trapped in an Orwellian nightmare of lies and propaganda and cut off from the outside world. I think there are close to 300,000 people languishing in these labour camps. Some of them are incarcerated by generations, so that if a grandson is arrested then the whole family, including the grandparents' generation, is arrested. If the grandparent is arrested, the children and grandchildren are forced into these gulags.

It is 2015, and what has changed? In the 3½ decades since Deng Xiaoping's reforms in China, at least China has a partial market economy and has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. It is 25 years since the first free elections in Poland, which marked the end of European communism, yet the world still confronts the dilemma of what to do with 25 million people in North Korea, the last relic of high Stalinism from the era of the Cold War. Only in North Korea is there this deadly combination of a totally repressive political system and an unworkable economic regime still in place.

As this motion recalls, the 372 page Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, chaired by former Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby, has been released. According to Kirby, the purpose of the report was to ensure that we cannot say, 'We didn't know.' This parliament has just debated a resolution on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. One of the terrible things about the genocide of the Second World War was that people claimed that they did not know that it was happening. When I ran this conference in 2009 that was one of the driving impetuses for it. I was very proud to publish and you can still see the reports of the conference on my website. It is the first time ever that a map was published of all of the concentration camps in North Korea. Justice Kirby distilled that essential point of it: people cannot say that they do not know with North Korea. We know where these people are. We know the circumstances under which they are existing. We know where these camps are. We know the names of them. As the Wall Street Journal reported:

This unrivalled and damning report—

by Justice Kirby—

a year in the making, has presented evidence of countless abuses by the North Korean government and military that shocked the conscience of humanity …

Justice Kirby's report states:

These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.

What an indictment. Kirby's panel recommended the situation in North Korea be referred to the International Criminal Court; but, with North Korea's ally holding veto power over the Security Council, this is unlikely to happen. However, it was refreshing, as I said, that the Security Council adopted the mass human rights abuses of North Korean as a standing agenda item.

I ask: where are the demonstrators? Where are the people who exhibit such conscience in other areas on this issue of North Korea? Surely, when Justice Kirby released his report they should have been in the streets. When the report was released last year, Justice Kirby hoped that it would refresh dialogue on the atrocities committed in North Korea. The problem is that I do not think it has. People have tut-tutted but not enough has changed. The reality is that no amount of persuasion or bribery will induce Kim Jong-un to moderate his regime, because he and the army and secret police apparatus which he depends on care only about holding onto their power and wealth.

The continued existence of this regime in North Korea confronts all people of good will with a terrible dilemma. If we cut this country off from all aid in the hope that it will bring about the downfall of the regime it will increase the suffering of the people. If, on the other hand, the world engages with North Korea and increases its aid, the regime will, as it has always done, use it to feed the party and military elite and starve the people. This is indeed a terrible dilemma but some decisions can be made that will help quicken the inevitable collapse of this repugnant regime.

First, there needs to be increased pressure on China over its treatment of North Korean defectors, particularly those people who travel to the Chinese-North Korean border. The UNHCR should be given access to the border region so that these people can act under some kind of protection.

Second, we must create every opportunity for North Koreans to engage with the outside world. This will help them see that the paradise which their regime tells them they live in is an Orwellian falsehood. Whether North Koreans come here as students, diplomats or most recently, as the previous speaker mentioned, as sportspeople when Australia hosted the Asian Cup, every North Korean who is exposed to the outside world can become an agent of change when they go home.

Third, the Australian government needs to introduce laws making it illegal for any Australian citizen to be involved in business dealings with the North Korean government. It was dismaying to see a report in August last year that a private equity firm, SRE Minerals, signed a joint venture with the North Korean regime's Korea Natural Resources Trading Corporation to develop a mining operation. This kind of venture can only assist in maintaining North Korea's iron-fisted control over its population. The Pyongyang regime needs hard currency and it is clear that these and other projects that I have not mentioned could provide billions of dollars to North Korea and help keep the North Korean leadership in power.

To people around the world Kim Jong-un may be a figure of fun, with his high-style haircuts. His father was a figure of fun in that memorable animated film titled Team America:World Police. But these people are not really just a joke; they are not just something comic for us to laugh at. The people of North Korea have suffered decades-long oppression. When you meet North Korean people, as I am sure the member who spoke previously has, you can see that they are a foot shorter than South Korean people as a result of the starvation and deprivation that they have faced. Theirs is a terrible situation. Honour to Justice Kirby on his report. Honour to the parliament for raising this topic.

12:34 pm

Photo of John AlexanderJohn Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I also rise in support of the motion moved by my colleague the member for Reid on the appalling situation in North Korea, and I support the words of my friend and colleague the member for Melbourne Ports. I would like to echo their concerns about the horrendous violations of human rights that are occurring in North Korea. The widespread nature of these violations is as shocking as the incidents themselves. Living life in a 1984 simulation, with fear and rumour of the fates that have befallen your compatriots, is a concept too awful to contemplate. However, dwelling on the injustice and terror of this regime achieves few results.

Thanks in part to the United Nations' excellent report and the Australian government's work to bring this to the Security Council, the entire world now knows the depravity of life in North Korea. I firmly believe that the conversation needs to swing towards the hope for the future and an aspiration of change. Negativity can only reinforce the status quo; positivity can aspire to change it. This is a view shared by a number of my constituents. Bennelong has one of the largest Korean communities in the country, and I have spoken with a several community leaders in the last few days to prepare for this debate. I am grateful to Jason Koh of the Korean Chamber of Commerce, Agnes Shim of the Korean Women's Association and, particularly, Mr Kim, who shared memories of his time in the north. All have informed me of the 'tentative hope' that they hold for the future and their cousins across the border; yet, in a sign of the sad reality, Mr Kim did not want me to use his full name in this speech for fear of reprisals on his family that remain behind.

Unfortunately, time is not on our side. Many people in my local Korean community are 70 years or more. They remember the days of an undivided Korea and have relatives on the other side of the border. Reunions, when they are allowed by the North Koreans, see no more than 300 people to connect with each other for 24 hours. Even for this paltry time, there are over 70,000 people on the waiting list. The current rate of reunions is unworkable and many families will not have the chance to be reunited before it is too late. I join the government in calling for the north to allow more of these reunions, as a matter of urgency.

On behalf of the Korean community in my electorate of Bennelong, I join the government in welcoming the UN's report. It is essential that everybody be aware of the terrible things happening in North Korea, and I commend the Foreign Minister and everybody else who helped get this into debate in the Security Council. What happens next will be critical. My constituents have told me of the genuine determination of many in the north to stay the course that they have set themselves. As such, threats do not work. But as one of them said, 'It is the soft rain that soaks in.'

This motion ends by calling for dialogue between the Koreas, and a demonstration of good faith through participation in inter-Korean family reunions. I am sure that this dialogue and openness is the way forward. Family reunions must be one of the central objectives of negotiations. The good faith garnered through these, not to mention the connections created, will surely help to gradually open up relations and access to this closed nation. Other soft power tactics are also welcome. Perhaps one day the north can even send a team to join my Bennelong Cup International Table Tennis Tournament, as the south does? Anything is possible. If this soft power can lead to meaningful discussions on human rights or other subjects, we are halfway there.

North Korea is one of the world's last pariah states. One by one, detente has crept across the diplomatic world, opening up closed states to the point where even Iran has started communicating with the west. I do not know how this will change for North Korea. I hope it will be through a groundswell of opinion perhaps started from growing openness following family reunions. We can hope. However, if it comes about, I am hopeful that, very soon, the Korean community in Bennelong and across Australia will be able to relax in the knowledge that their cousins back home are not threatened by tyranny and have all the benefits of a free society that we are so lucky to enjoy in this country. I congratulate the member for Reid for raising this important motion and I commend it to the House.

12:39 pm

Photo of Laurie FergusonLaurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I congratulate the mover of this motion, the member for Reid, who has noted heavy Korean settlement in suburbs such as Lidcombe, and also, more particularly, the member for Melbourne, who has fought for this issue on a broader front, making sure that outside this House there was a conference that discussed this issue some years ago.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are organisations which, as gadflies, are often unpopular with many countries because they are critical of those countries on so many fronts. But they are no strangers to human rights abuses. Amnesty International has said of North Korea that it is 'in a category of its own'. As I say, they are no strangers to these issues. Human Rights Watch has spoken of it as 'a nation that continues to impose totalitarian rule with systematic denial of basic freedoms'. As other speakers have said, this is a country in a category of its own. Quite clearly, the level of abuse is by any standard horrific. It has been mentioned that the average size of North Korean citizens is far lower than that of South Koreans—27 per cent of children are born underweight. Obviously, there is malnutrition throughout the land; often it is state instigated—whether by seizure of crops or by policies that lead in that direction. I do not want to get into controversies about World War II, but former Justice Kirby said that he wished the definition of genocide was not as narrow as it is, because it was not wide enough to find genocide in the case of North Korea. That is how horrific he found the situation there.

As the member for Melbourne Ports says, in the arcane procedures and the self-interested support of nations for each other, it is very difficult to get Security Council activity around any one country. To accomplish this shows both the international disrespect for North Korea's regime and the work that Kirby has done on this issue. It is difficult. To have accomplished that resolution with all the self-interest and playing off of issues—you protect me, and I protect you and I will not interfere here—really does say something. We have a situation here where there are reports of women being raped within detention centres and prisons and then they are murdered to make sure the crime never comes to light. There is clear evidence not of a reduction, but an expansion in the numbers of prisoners since 2010. Clearly, we are not advancing under the new leader. The United Nations and private charities are not allowed in to monitor food or the circumstances of those in need. North Korea negotiates for food with the Western world and for tentative agreements over weapons, but there is no monitoring of how that is delivered. Whatever the rest of the world gives is seen as a gift to the state. Ji Hyunah, a person who fled in the 1990s, claimed in the UK Telegraph on 16 February that prisoners were given no food whatsoever, forcing them to eat frogs and grasshoppers to survive. She also claimed they forced an abortion on her without anaesthetic, leaving her bleeding heavily long after.

In a country which has very strong geopolitical interests in the region—and where an aunt of former Prime Minister Menzies was an early Christian missionary—it is quite appropriate that we take an interest. It is a situation which is beyond the pale. People are actually persecuted for knowing about the rest of the world. All means for getting information are supressed—if you are found to be watching DVDs or having access to any technology that informs you, there is trouble. Pressure must continue to be maintained on China because of its policy of sending back people who clearly have claims for asylum to North Korea. I commend the movers and the other people who are supporting this resolution.

12:44 pm

Photo of Don RandallDon Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I too would like to support this resolution brought to this chamber by the member for Reid. I congratulate him for doing so and all the other members who have spoken, or are about to speak, on this motion. Your words are profound, and we are here to support the human rights of the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

There is no doubt that these human rights abuses are well documented. However, unless we continue to ventilate them, as has been done today, and particularly in supporting the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, whose report was released in March 2014 by former Justice Kirby, we will not be doing our job.

I want to talk about some anecdotal evidence because late last year I led a delegation to Japan and South Korea. One of the clerks at the table, Mr Jerome Brown, was the delegation secretary, and he will confirm much of what I have to say in terms of some of the observations that we made. North Korea is a country that has been run and controlled by a tyrannical family dynasty since 1948. It started with Kim Il Sung from 1948 to 1994, 46 years, then his son Kim Jong Il from 1994 to 2011, 17 years. Now we have Kim Jong Un, who has been in place since 2011. This family company, which essentially runs North Korea on behalf of its own interest, does so by persecuting, starving and treating its own people with greatest of disrespect and the maximum amount of abuse possible.

It is true that they are starving. We went to the demilitarised zone. We looked at some of the issues. We stood on the border and looked across into Korea. Bizarrely, they have a convoy which leaves South Korea and goes into North Korea on a daily basis. They have to be escorted militarily as a convoy so that some of the families can go there and visit their relatives, as we have already heard. But what is even more bizarre is that there are companies now operating out of South Korea which take day trips of tourists to go and see the circus which is North Korea. Very expensively, they sell places for people to go and look at the mad, crazy, despotic circus which is North Korea.

The current leader, as I said, is Mr Kim Jong Un, with his great bouffant hairdo. It seems to be a sort of family tradition that you have to have that sort of hairdo to follow the family traditions. His greatest claim to fame is that his best friend is Dennis Rodman, the crazy, body pierced, heavily tattooed ex American basketballer. They sit there and smoke huge Cuban cigars and drink the best cognac while the people starve.

To that end, as our secretary will tell you, the people of South Korea who have family there and feel desperately for those people living there do strange things like get chocolate biscuits and tie them to helium balloons, wait for the prevailing winds and release them so that the people of North Korea can taste some luxury for once in their life. What is even more bizarre is that these chocolate biscuits are now becoming a currency in North Korea. If they get them, they can actually trade them and use them as some currency to buy proper food. This is just out of control.

To demonstrate how desperate they are: a former South Korean President along with the Hyundai company decided that they would try and help them develop a cattle industry. There are virtually no trees or grass because the people are eating it. They took 2,000 cattle in a great cattle convoy, which some people may well have read about, to go and start this cattle-breeding industry to feed the people of North Korea. Sadly, they ate the cattle. There is no cattle industry left.

Besides the fact that the North Koreans are persecuting and starving their own people, there is a greater responsibility from the neighbours in the region. Yes, North Korea can afford atomic weapons. Yes, they can afford great ships of destruction and the military that is in place, but they cannot afford to feed their own people.

12:49 pm

Photo of Alan GriffinAlan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I join with other speakers in commending the member for Reid for bringing this motion before the House. When we look at the circumstances around North Korea, often when we see it portrayed in the international media—with films like Team America: World Policeor even more recently The Interviewit is seen as a source of fun because, frankly, what is occurring there and has occurred there goes beyond the ridiculous. However, the commission of inquiry that the UN conducted actually highlighted that, although it is increasingly bizarre, the fact is it is also horrific. The circumstances faced by the people in North Korea, the nature of the regime, the way that it perpetrates crimes against humanity with respect to its own people and the nature of how it relates to the rest of the world lead, in fact, to an incredibly serious situation that requires international focus and international condemnation but also, on from that, international efforts to try and engage and to try and ensure that a way is found through the madness that is the regime that is in place in North Korea.

As some members know, I spent three months late last year at the United Nations in New York. One of the highlights of the time that I was there was a seminar sponsored by the Australian mission to the UN, which had Michael Kirby, the distinguished jurist and member of the commission of inquiry, there and actually going through the detail of the findings. Part of that was also to meet and hear from some dissidents who had in fact escaped the clutches of the North Korean regime, but also—and this was farcical—to hear the representatives of North Korea seek to defend the position of their government with respect to the findings of the commission.

I encapsulate that in a few basic points. Justice Kirby made it clear that the horror of what he had seen and had been told was, frankly, horrific and it was something which required international action. He made it clear that the commission of inquiry had done everything that they could to engage with the North Korean authorities, but that those attempts had been to no avail. He made it clear that there needed to be action taken on an ongoing basis to ensure that the issues in North Korea were not just forgotten and swept under the carpet. The thing that you find with the UN is that it is actually dealing with so many horrific issues at any one time that it is not hard to have a situation where matters such as this do not get the time and scrutiny that they deserve.

Certainly this report was detailed and complex and it went to the very essence of the evil that is the North Korean regime. The report had some 400 pages; some 80 witnesses in Seoul, Tokyo, London and Washington; more than 240 confidential interviews; and 80 formal submissions from different entities. It was comprehensive, and its findings were absolutely terrible. The crimes committed against the people of North Korea by their government know no bounds, and they are based in a philosophy and an ideology which is perverted in the extreme and actually impacts directly on the wellbeing of the people that they aim to say that they seek to protect but clearly do not. Facts such as that the average North Korean is an astounding six inches shorter than their South Korean counterpart, which goes directly to issues of malnutrition, to access to health care and to the actual basis of what people need to live a decent life; that there are something like 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners currently detained; and the that those camps are totalitarian horrors that ensure that people are treated in conditions which are absolutely inhumane.

I commend the fact that the UN Security Council has put the situation of human rights abuse in North Korea on the agenda as a watching brief for the future. I think it is important that these matters are reviewed on an ongoing basis and they are highlighted. I am at a loss to know the way forward in terms of how we would get change in North Korea. The one thing I am certain of is that we will not get change if we do not, as an international community, focus on what is occurring there, if we do not raise those issues publicly, and if we do not ensure that that regime has to answer for the crimes that is committing.

Debate adjourned.