Description
Book SynopsisNorth Korea’s human rights violations are unparalleled in the contemporary world. In
Dying for Rights, Sandra Fahy provides the definitive account of the abuses committed by the North Korean state, domestically and internationally, from its founding to the present.
Trade ReviewReadable, beautifully written, and often profound. * Free Korea *
This well-researched, multidisciplinary book, based on a wide range of source material, is intended for a wide audience. -- M. J. Frost, emerita, Wittenberg University * Choice *
Dying for Rights is an exhaustive and important account of the human rights abuses that the Kim regime has inflicted on the North Korean people over decades, from the quotidian to the horrific. With her deep knowledge and her anthropological approach, augmented by her obvious compassion for the victims of this regime, Sandra Fahy has provided the basis for one day holding Kim Jong Un to account. A must-read. -- Anna Fifield, author of
The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong UnThe story of North Korean human rights abuses has been difficult to tell because so much of the problem remains shrouded by the state, with nameless and faceless victims. Fahy remedies this malady with a beautifully written and human story of human rights abuses in North Korea that takes us beyond hard-to-obtain statistics. -- Victor Cha, D. S. Song-KF Professor of Government, Georgetown University and former National Security Council director for Japan and Korea affairs
North Korea is a tragic symphony full of discordant themes. Famine. Surveillance. Detention. Oppression. Regimentation. Desperation. Suicide. Escape. These stories were told in the report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2014. Five years later, the tragedy continues.
Dying for Rights confirms and expands the melancholy and frightening stories presented in 2014. This serious chronicle calls our distracted attention back to the human themes to which we must respond. Somber, compelling, and unrelenting chords from a dangerous land of ‘endless winter’ that still awaits the arrival of the sun. -- Michael Kirby, chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, 2013-2014
Sandra Fahy's
Dying for Rights is a riveting and comprehensive account of the worst human rights violations occurring in the contemporary world. Fahy addresses the Kim regime's draconian coercion, control, surveillance, and punishment, and the plight of North Koreans crushed by a deliberate policy of human rights denial. She scrutinizes the lives of North Koreans abused and exploited at home and abroad. She addresses all themes relevant to understanding the North Korean human rights crisis, from political prison camps to refugees and laborers officially dispatched overseas to work under abysmal conditions. She sheds light on the dynamics of the North Korean escapee community. Fahy illuminates a new dimension of evidence collected by the UN Commission of Inquiry by transcending legal analysis and looking at escapee testimony through an anthropological lens. -- Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Descent
Part I: The Crimes1. The History of Human Rights Violations in North Korea
2. Famine and Hunger
3. Discrimination and Religious Persecution
4. Information Control
5. Forbidding the Foreign
6. Control of Movement
7. Prison Camps, Torture, and Execution
8. Exporting Rights Violations
Part II: The Denials9. From the Mouths of Foreign Nationals
10. The State News Strikes Back
11. North Korea’s Rhetoric of Denial at the United Nations
12. Broadcasting Denial
Conclusion: Ascent
Notes
Bibliography
Index
