The Shocking Truth About North Korean Tyranny

For 60 years, North Korea has been ruled by one of the most repressive totalitarian regimes on earth. Millions of North Koreans have been starved to death and sent to concentration camps to die in inhumane ways not seen since the days of Hitler or Stalin. The North Korean regime is not interested in reform, nor is it interested in denuclearization. Despite the international community's focus on North Korea's weapons program over the past 20 years, too little attention has been paid to the lack of human rights in the country. In February [2014], the United Nations Commission of Inquiry released its report on human rights in North Korea, yielding a compendium of crimes against humanity committed by the North Korean regime. While the totality of this report is certainly shocking?a wake up call for the international community to take action?the horrors described are not a surprise to the human rights community, which has worked with dozens of individuals who have been lucky enough to escape from the Kim chamber of horrors. Yet, North Korea remains one of the least understood regimes in a world seemingly focused elsewhere.