To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Baroness Warsi on 23 July
(HL Deb, cols GC 460–4) on the Commission of Inquiry Report on human rights in North
Korea, whether any projects to improve the substantive human rights of North Koreans,
rather than cultural, economic or humanitarian initiatives, are to be implemented;
and whether such projects are being considered for North Korean refugees outside the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
<p>It is not possible for the UK to carry out projects in the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) without the cooperation of the DPRK authorities. This has
an impact on the type of projects we are able to support, although we have successfully
taken forward projects in some areas of human rights, such as disability rights. In
the Financial Year 2014/15 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO’s) Human Rights
and Democracy Programme is funding a project delivered by the Thomson Foundation titled
‘Inside Out: Working in North Korea to connect its journalists to the Internet world’,
which aims to give North Korean journalists a greater understanding of freedom of
expression by teaching them Internet skills. Our other engagement projects are about
finding concrete ways to inform North Korean citizens about the UK and its values,
so that in the long term they recognise the benefits of working with the outside world
from which they are normally isolated.</p><p>Our Embassy in Seoul supports the North
Korean refugee community through its “English for the Future” programme, which is
funded with a mixture of FCO programme funds and corporate sponsorship. We also reserve
one of our Chevening scholarships for this community. These programmes help new settlers
tackle some of the barriers which can prevent their successful integration into South
Korean society and improve their future prospects. The FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy
Programme has also previously funded projects with North Korean refugee groups in
the Republic of Korea which are more directly related to human rights in the DPRK,
such as documenting the effects of torture or producing a report on the rights of
women. We remain open to funding similar projects in the future.</p>
