Trump gave the quiet Kim Jong-un

The US suddenly cut funding to a fund that helps mitigate human rights violations in North Korea. This play made by the department led by Elon Musk gives Kim Jong-un more power.

This week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in North Korea has appealed to the international community, expressing its concern about the future of civil society work in the field of human rights in North Korea.

The reason for alarm is the sudden freezing of the National Endowment for Democracy funds (NED) -A non-governmental organization.

One of the main beneficiaries of NED’s funds are the groups that document and help to end Human Rights Violations in North Korea.

The suspension of financing threatens to further undermine the lives of people living under one of the most flagrant authoritarian regimes in the world.

NED is a US institution with a long history in its foreign policy, described as a “bastion of republican internationalism.” Created by a Congress law, it was promulgated by the President Ronald Reagan em 1983.

With bipartisan support, NED is directly based on the fundamental republican values ​​of democracy in the world. Every year, it supports the work of non -governmental organizations in over 100 countries.

Although it is not clear because it is that Elon Muskin its role in the department of government efficiency, it suddenly targeted this institution, the consequences of cutting the financing overnight are easy to see. One of the results is the probable end of decades work on human rights in North Korea.

Affected North Koreans; reinforced dictator

One of the groups most affected by this freezing of funds is the Citizens’ alliance for the human rights of North Korea. North Korea’s original human rights organization, which is dedicated to a single question, is now planning to close the doors.

Without NED financing, the organization claims not to cover its operating expenses, such as payment of staff income or salaries.

Nor can you continue your important research and documentation of human rights violations suffered by the North Korean people.

The citizens’ alliance is just one of many groups, most of which are based in South Korea, which depend on NED for your work.

In a recent study exposed in, Danielle ChubbProfessor of International Relations at DeAkin University (Australia), studied the various available international support schemes exist to fund democratization and human rights efforts in North Korea.

For a long time, the situation of people who suffered human rights violations within the secret country was not well known in the outside world.

For decades, civil society groups have created coalitions, collected information, wrote reports, compiled databases, organized public awareness events, and pressured politicians at all levels. In 2014, they were able to create the United Nations Inquiry Commission on Human Rights in North Korea.

This inquiry, chaired by the Australian Michael KirbyIt is, for over ten years, the definitive document on human rights in North Korea.

Their conclusions about the serious violations of human rights in the country were the probative basis for international human rights action in North Korea.

Among the examples of the report conclusions are:

• The use of political prisoners, torture, executions and other types of arbitrary detention to suppress real or apparent political dissent
• the almost total denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and association
• the use of access to food as a means of controlling the population.

North Korean Human Rights Defense Groups continue to be at the center of this work. Having been able to put the issue directly on the international agenda, they continue to exercise pressure for the international community to pay more attention to the human rights situation.

Groups that have NED funding develop a vast range of activities:

• support the North Koreans living in South Korea and other places abroad;
• Some provide support to formally record human rights violations, helping to create a solid database of survivor testimonies;
• Others support reports from clandestine North Korean journalists in the country and others still make a myriad of other defense, support and accountability work.

But now All this work can end more suddenly than someone could expect.

Quiet and silent, wins

O Database Center for North Korean Human Rights It suspended all the programs except the most urgent, and launched an appeal to donations.

The Executive Director Hannah Song He described the situation as a crisis of “a massive and sudden financing cut that threatens the crucial work of those on the front line.”

Sokeel Parkleader of another non -governmental group that works in this domain, described the situation as “from afar The biggest crisis faced by the NGO who have worked in this area since the beginning of the movement in the 1990s ″.

And it’s not an exaggeration. The North Korean Human Rights Defense Movement has had a huge effect on the awareness and understanding of the international community about how the North Korean government maintains order and represses dissent.

Who, in your silence and stillness, gains from it without having to be upset? The dictator, Kim Jong-un.

Where is Trump now?

In 2018, the speech of the US President, Donald TrumpAbout the State of the Union focused on human rights violations suffered by the North Korean people at the hands of the authoritarian regime.

Trump, at the time, stated: “Just look at the depraved character of the North Korean regime to understand the nature of nuclear threat that represents“.

Now, by effectively silencing the most vocal critics of the government, the administration Trump seems to be giving room to breathe Kim Jong-un and one of the most atrocious authoritarian regimes in the world.