Cliff Stearns: “the North Korean regime has the worst human rights record in the world. Citizens are denied the most fundamental…”

“the North Korean regime has the worst human rights record in the world. Citizens are denied the most fundamental freedoms in classic Communist fashion, the economy results in shortages and an ever-present threat of starvation. Additionally, the regime has divided citizens into 51 classes. At least 7 million citizens, more than one-third of the population, are regarded as members of a hostile class, categorized as a potential threat to the existence of this regime. Members of this class are held in one of North Korea's 12 known prison camps. According to an MSNBC news report from January 2003, one of these prison camps is literally three times the size of Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the State Security Agency maintains at least 12 political prisons and about 30 forced labor and reeducation camps. There are also rumors of a series of underground camps. No one knows how many exist and, of course, how many prisoners are being held. These Stalinist-style gulags await any citizen, even children, who dare to commit such crimes as reading a foreign newspaper, singing a foreign pop song, listening to a foreign radio broadcast, or making statements that could be interpreted as an insult to the regime. The camps combine starvation, hard labor and brutal and irrational punishments. In one camp, former inmates claim prisoners work in such hard conditions that 20 to 25 percent of the 50,000 prisoners die every year.…”