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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 22 May 2025
North Korean defectors urge the U.N. to hold the country’s leader

accountable for rights abuses

By EDITH M. LEDERER state-controlled system
Associated Press that finances its expanding
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — nuclear program and mili-
Eunju Kim, who escaped tary ventures, Salmón said.
starvation in North Korea in North Korea’s U.N. Ambas-
1999, was sent back from sador Kim Song called the
China and fled a second allegations that his country
time, told the United Na- violates human rights “a
tions on Tuesday that the burlesque of intrigue and
country’s leader must be fabrication” and insisted
held accountable for gross that tens of millions of North
human rights violations. Koreans enjoy human rights
Gyuri Kang, whose family under the country’s social-
faced persecution for her ist system.
grandmother’s religious be- He accused the West of
liefs, fled the North during being the bigger violator,
the COVID-19 pandemic. through racial discrimina-
She told the General As- tion, human trafficking and
sembly that three of her sexual slavery.
friends were executed two But the two defectors and
for watching South Korean human rights defenders
TV dramas. detailed numerous abuses.
At the high-level meeting Kim, who said her father
of the 193-member world In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, died of starvation, told U.N.
body, the two women, inspects the military exercises at an undisclosed place in North Korea, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. diplomats that after mak-
both now living in South Associated Press ing it to China across the
Korea, described the plight Tumen River the first time,
of North Koreans who U.N. bers have dwindled drasti- penalty and public execu- its soldiers while in service, she, her mother and sister
special investigator Eliza- cally in recent years. tions. and the government’s were sold for the equiva-
beth Salmón said have Salmón said North Korea’s In another rights issue, she widespread exploitation of lent of less than $300 to a
been living in “absolute iso- closure of its borders wors- said, the deployment of its own people.” Chinese man.
lation” since the pandemic ened an already dire hu- North Korean troops to The North’s “extreme mili- Three years later, they were
began in early 2020. man rights situation, with support Russia in its war tarization” enables it to arrested and sent back to
Thousands of North Koreans new laws enacted since against Ukraine has raised keep the population under the North. In 2002, they es-
have fled the country since 2020 and stricter punish- concerns about “the poor surveillance and it exploits caped again across the
the late 1990s, but the num- ments, including the death human rights conditions of the work force through a river.q

Guyana’s army chief says Venezuelans participating in Essequibo

vote risk arrest

By BERT WILKINSON ana who become involved in Guyana, according to power and defense,” Per- tional tribunal in 1899 drew
Associated Press in Sunday’s elections could Foreign Secretary Robert saud said in a recent social the border between the
GEORGETOWN, Guyana also face arrest and depor- Persaud. media post. South American neighbors.
(AP) — Guyana’s defense tation, Khan added. “Shouldn’t this reality give The Essequibo region rep- In 2018, Guyana went to
chief warned on Wednes- Nearly 100,000 people of all Guyanese a cause to be resents two-thirds of Guy- the International Court of
day that any residents who direct or indirect Venezu- alert? People’s vigilance ana and is rich in gold, dia- Justice and asked judges
participate in upcoming elan ancestry currently live is equivalent to people’s monds, timber and other to uphold the 1899 ruling.
elections organized by natural resources. It also is Meanwhile, Venezuela has
neighboring Venezuela located close to massive dismissed the border drawn
over a disputed region will offshore oil deposits, with more than a century ago,
be charged with treason current production aver- noting Guyana was still a
and other felony crimes. aging some 650,000 barrels British colony. It has argued
“If anyone participates or daily. that a 1966 agreement to
takes any similar action, it On Sunday, Venezuelans resolve the dispute effec-
will amount to support for will head to the polls to tively nullified the original
a passive coup,” Brig. Gen. elect governors and law- arbitration.
Omar Khan told The Associ- makers, as well as officials The case is still pending in
ated Press. “Anything along who would supposedly ad- court while tensions be-
those lines will speak to a minister the Essequibo re- tween the two countries
violation of our sovereignty gion. keep rising despite an
and territorial integrity.” In 2023, Maduro threat- emergency summit held in
The May 25 election orga- ened to annex the region late 2023 to diffuse the situ-
nized by Venezuelan Presi- by force after holding a ation.
dent Nicolás Maduro is the A youth drives a motorcycle in front of a mural of a map referendum asking voters if Last week, Guyana’s gov-
latest step in a push to an- of Venezuela with the Essequibo territory, a swath of land Essequibo should be turned ernment reported three
nex the Essequibo region, administered and controlled by Guyana but claimed by into a Venezuelan state. separate attacks from the
which Venezuela has long Venezuela, in the 23 de Enero neighborhood of Caracas, The dispute over the region Venezuelan side on Guya-
Venezuela, Dec. 11, 2023.
claimed as its own. Associated Press began more than a cen- nese soldiers patrolling a
Venezuelans living in Guy- tury ago, when an interna- border river. q