HRNK, Holocaust museum in joint work against N. Korean prison camps

A U.S. human rights group has teamed up with a Holocaust museum in efforts to call attention to North Korea's human rights abuses.

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) said Wednesday it would hold a forum, titled "The Heart of Darkness:

North Korea's Hidden Gulag," at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center later in the day. Among the participants will be Amb. Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, it added.

The Washington-based HRNK and the museum in Skokie, Ill., are working together to enhance public awareness of the political prison camps in North Korea.

North Korea forcibly holds up to 120,000 political prisoners on starvation rations while subjecting them to forced labor, beatings and other severe punishment, said the HRNK.

“It is essential that we affirm the obligation to recognize our shared responsibility to humanity, and remain resolute in fostering the promotion of human rights," said Richard Hirschhaut, executive director of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

"Our partnership with HRNK echoes a unified, clarion call that we must stand firm against atrocities that erupt in our midst, and together resolve that such crimes against humanity must come to an end.”

The HRNK said its joint campaign with the Holocaust museum is expected to help promote the work of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating North Korea's "widespread, systemic, and grave violations of human rights."

HRNK Co-chairwoman Roberta Cohen pointed out since the museum teaches lessons on crimes and atrocities against humanity, it is a "fitting place" to bring attention to the inhumanity of North Korea's political prison camps. (Yonhap News)