APR2P's latest addition to the Risk Assessment Series focuses on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea.
This Risk Assessment finds a very high level of risk of continued atrocity crimes. The perpetration of crimes against humanity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a daily reality for the tens of thousands of political prisoners within the country. The deliberate policy of atrocity crimes not only serves as punishment for perceived crimes against the state, but also as a deterrent. Serious and widespread violations of human rights are committed as a deliberate state policy to maintain power in the absence of popular legitimacy.
The state’s isolationism, characterised by a near complete absence of unilateral or multilateral engagement, in addition to a lack of independent media and civil society, means there is very little effective pressure to end the ongoing atrocities perpetrated against the population.
Read the Risk Assessment here (PDF, 1.4MB), or on our Risk Assessments page, along with other Risk Assessments of countries within the Asia Pacific, including a previous Risk Assessment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
For continued updates on the situation, please refer to the Centre's Regional Outlooks.
Photo credit: UNOCHA/David Ohana: commuters travel to work by bus in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
