pp. 771-773
Dying for Rights: Putting North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses on the Record, Sandra Fahy
An anthropologist, Sandra Fahy addresses one of the most pressing human rights issues in the contemporary global community. In Dying for Rights, Fahy begins with a historical record of North Korea’s human rights violations under the rule of Kim Il-sung (1948–1994). Among them are the removal of political plurality, Kim’s personality cult, population and information control, and the elimination of Christian believers. She then highlights serious violations of socioeconomic rights stemming from a famine from 1995 to 1998 that resulted in the death of 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. Fahy argues that this tragedy was mainly caused by the North Korean government’s mismanagement of economic policies and international aid, while the abrupt collapse of the Soviet bloc and natural disasters worsened the condition.
Fahy also stresses that many North Koreans have suffered long-standing discrimination given a social classification system called Songbun, which refers to “a person’s genetically inherited political destiny, with all of North Korean society stratified into three basic groups: core, wavering, or hostile” (p. 60). Songbun stratification limits people’s opportunities for education, profession, marriage, and residence according to their loyalty and usefulness to the state.
Fahy points out that most N
To continue reading, see options above.
Join the Academy of Political Science and automatically receive Political Science Quarterly.
Academy Forum | Human Rights Pragmatism
March 5, 2024
12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m. ET
WEBINAR
Ukraine, Russia, and the West
Creating a Disaster: NATO's Open Door Policy
Robert J. Art
Engagement, Containment, and the International Politics of Eurasia
DAVID W. RIVERA
Publishing since 1886, PSQ is the most widely read and accessible scholarly journal with distinguished contributors such as: Lisa Anderson, Robert A. Dahl, Samuel P. Huntington, Robert Jervis, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Theda Skocpol, Woodrow Wilson
view additional issuesArticles | Book reviews
The Academy of Political Science, promotes objective, scholarly analyses of political, social, and economic issues. Through its conferences and publications APS provides analysis and insight into both domestic and foreign policy issues.
With neither an ideological nor a partisan bias, PSQ looks at facts and analyzes data objectively to help readers understand what is really going on in national and world affairs.