Following are excerpts from the briefing note:

Congressional Human Rights Caucus Members' Briefing:
HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA

Briefing & Exhibit

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
Room 2203 Rayburn House Office Building

Dear Colleague:

... North Korea is a closed society, governed by a totalitarian regime under the leadership of Kim Jung-Il. Despite North Korea's ratification of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the vast majority of its citizens enjoy no rights or freedoms, but live under conditions of hunger and poverty, fear, and oppression by their own government.

In addition, freedom of the press is non-existent and any information available is government propaganda circulated by state-controlled media. Reports coming from the few humanitarian relief organizations operating in the country provide alarming accounts of human rights violations and the suffering of the majority of the country's population. It is estimated that since 1995, over two million people have starved to death in the North Korean famine due to poverty, unequal access to food, and the distribution of relief food according to loyalty to the state.

The state also operates several prisons and brutal forced labor camps with little regard for the judicial process. These camps hold up to 200,000 people and it is believed that 400,000 prisoners have died while incarcerated. North Korea is the only country that imprisons children for being away from home. These "9-27" prisons set a new low for international human rights....