Whither the Talk About North Korea's Human Rights Nightmare?

This isn't surprising to say the least. The Administration isn't bringing up the North Korean gulag archipelago and the dire human rights conditions in the totalitarian dictatorship in any of its discussions.

For all the bluster about how Democrats are more interested in human rights than Republicans, it's business as usual despite the fact that we've got a better picture of what is going on behind the DMZ. It isn't pretty.

A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps: Eating a diet of mostly corn and salt, they lose their teeth, their gums turn black, their bones weaken and, as they age, they hunch over at the waist. Most work 12- to 15-hour days until they die of malnutrition-related illnesses, usually around the age of 50. Allowed just one set of clothes, they live and die in rags, without soap, socks, underclothes or sanitary napkins.

The camps have never been visited by outsiders, so these accounts cannot be independently verified. But high-resolution satellite photographs, now accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, reveal vast labor camps in the mountains of North Korea. The photographs corroborate survivors' stories, showing entrances to mines where former prisoners said they worked as slaves, in-camp detention centers where former guards said uncooperative prisoners were tortured to death and parade grounds where former prisoners said they were forced to watch executions. Guard towers and electrified fences surround the camps, photographs show.

"We have this system of slavery right under our nose," said An Myeong Chul, a camp guard who defected to South Korea. "Human rights groups can't stop it. South Korea can't stop it. The United States will have to take up this issue at the negotiating table."

No, the only way this stops is when the North Korean regime is toppled, whether from decay within or as a result of the world ending the regime's tenure. Since the latter is unlikely, hoping for the former is the best chance (and it's a slim one at that).

While North Korea continues spending all of its energies on building nuclear weapons and missile technologies, its people suffer horribly and hundreds of thousands disappear into the North Korean gulag archipelago.