Head Chair: Kira Presley Vice Chair: Razan Al-Obaidy Moderator: Lani Jacobson Position papers will be due on February 2, 2019. The position paper format and all other important conference documents can be found on our conference website, http://lhhsconference.weebly.com/. Email all position papers to our committee email: [email protected]. Feel free to contact us via email if you have any questions or concerns!
Hello delegates, my name is Kira Presley and I am your head chair. I’m a Junior at Laguna Hills High School and have been in MUN for three years. Outside of MUN, I’m in cross country and distance track. I’m a part of BEE Happy, Red Cross, NHS and a couple other clubs. I love ice cream and french fries, and am really interested in politics and foreign affairs. We have one topic, thank goodness, and a special crisis set up for u guys in case we exhaust our topic. See you at our conference! Hello, my name is Razan Al-Obaidy and I will be your vice chair for this committee. I am a junior at LHHS and this will be my third year in MUN. I am involved in Red Cross, CSF and other clubs. Though I will not be majoring in politics, MUn has taught me many life skills such as arguing in a polite manner and public speaking without hesitation! I am looking forward to see you all on the day of the conference! Hi, My name is Lani Jacobson, and I will be your moderator! I’m a sophomore at LHHS and have been in MUN for two years now. In addition to MUN, I love being part of the drama program, Comedy Sportz, and choir in and out of school! I am president of Kindness Club and Vice President of Disney Club. I’m also very excited to be joining all you delegates in ICC this year! Your lawyers will be Darya Ardehali and Blake Jaffe. Since this is a one day conference, we will be only reviewing Kim Jong-Un and might move onto a crisis scenario if we have time. Witnesses are preparing beforehand for the trial with their names provided below; many of their names are made up. We look forward to seeing you guys in committee!
Topic A: Kim Jong Un Background: After his father’s death in 2011, Kim Jong Un assumed the position of supreme leader of North Korea at the age of twenty eight. Seven years later, he has instituted economic agricultural reforms and made notable and questionable decisions violating human rights, thus making him one of the most infamous people on the planet. At the beginning of his reign, Kim Jong Un fired and executed many of his father’s older officials, including a relative of his family. Furthermore, he has (allegedly) performed countless public executions, assigned arbitrary detention, and required forced labor among various labor camps throughout the nation. Alarmingly, as of 2017, Kim Jong Un had 130,000 people imprisoned in gulags (forced labor camps). Not only this, but he has been accused of all but ten out of the eleven recognized crimes against humanity by the International Bar Association and War Crimes Committee. More specific acts of Kim Jong Un’s tend to be as gruesome as feeding a newborn baby to a guard dog. Also, in efforts to keep his people from seeking refuge in other countries, he has tightened the travel restrictions and increased border control. In detail, on news channels worldwide, word spread that a North Korean soldier escaped the border and was relieved by South Korean soldiers; his injuries show the extremity of the restrictions placed by Kim Jong Un. In brief, the North Korean government has been accused of enslavement, torture, murder, rape, sexual violence, imprisonment, and forced abortion by the COI (Commission of Inquiry) in 2014. Throughout the years, Kim Jong Un has also continued to test nuclear weapons despite the disapproval of fellow countries. Specifically, the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile stretched as far as the coast of Japan, leaving Japan feeling attacked and many countries, like the United States, feeling at risk of North Korea’s nuclear power. In efforts to alleviate some of the building tension, Kim Jong Un had monumental meetings with the President Moon Jae-in (South Korea), and President Donald Trump (United States). At the 2018 North Korea - United States Summit, both countries signed a document striving towards the denuclearization of Korea and the United States, providing security to the nation. As for the North Korea - South Korea Summit, not only did both countries pledge to bring universal peace to the peninsula, they took the next step forward by walking together at the Winter Olympics with their unified flag for the first time in years. During committee, we will be trying Kim Jong Un for the charges of crimes against humanity and nuclear action.
UN Involvement: The United Nations has been actively involved in North Korea’s issues and problems. To be more specific, the United Nations Security Council has adopted nine sanctions on North Korea in response to the nuclear and missile activities since 2006. The UN has made it clear that North Korea is violating previous UN resolutions in addition to almost every single human rights. Not only that, the resolutions give United Nations’ member states the right to interfere and inspect North Korea cargo within their territory. This interference from the UN calls North Korea to rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which was established in 1985 and yet North Korea withdrew in 2003. In response to this withdrawal, the UN passed Resolution 825, emphasizing the need for North Korea to remain in the treaty and honor its obligations under this treaty. All in all, several resolutions and sanctions have been passed in order to restrict North Korea from further nuclear and missile tests; however, North Korea, specifically Kim Jong Un, has not listened to any of the UN’s interference.
Prosecution: Kim Jong Un is clearly a guilty man. His careless disregard for others has been represented in his breaking of countless laws. The United States has already imposed many sanctions on Kim Jong Un and others in his regime for extreme cases of human rights abuse against his own people. Kim Jong Un takes little consideration for his citizens’ lives in and out of his country. South Korea ran an investigation on Kim Jong Un after his half brother was poisoned to death in which the results of this investigation confirm Kim Jong Un’s approval and prosecution of his half brothers death. If Kim Jong Un is willing to end his own family member’s life to maintain his power, there's no reason he wouldn't do the same to the many citizens inside his country. Kim Jong Un is also immensely dishonest to not just the people of his country, but to the whole world. After the proposition that Kim Jong Un was holding over 100,000 people captive inside labor camps was revealed, he was quick to deny the statement. Detailed satellite imagery later proved the existence of these labor camps and refutes all Kim Jong Un’s previous claims. If these labor camps inside North Korea were being ran humanely, no innocent man would attempt to hide them. Exports on these camps state that there is heavy evidence of systematic murder, torture, rape, starvation, and many other horrid crimes which all violate human rights of his citizens. Kim Jong Un also focuses on the flaunting of his extensive military in an effort to intimidate other nations. Kim Jong Un is clearly aware of his extensive international law breaking, and uses his many supposed military advancements to bring other nations under his power. An example of this would be his countless nuclear bomb tests, which he has openly discussed numerous times. Due to these blatant transgressions of international law and human rights, it is clear that Kim Jong Un is guilty of crimes against humanity and his prosecution is necessary to ensure the safety and justice of mankind.
Defense: Kim Jong Un is a man with a murky and yet compelling past. Born in North Korea, Kim Jong-Un is the son of Ko Young-hee, an opera singer, and Kim Jong-il, who was the North Korean leader at the time. Kim Jong-il began to prepare his son for leadership and by the time Kim Jong-un assumed power, his father had already died. Kim’s father was already known to be a very dictatorial leader that broke numerous human rights laws and caused nation-wide famine. Unfortunately Kim Jong-un did not have a very outstanding role model to look up to when he was younger, and sadly he too learned his fathers’ traits and leadership style. From my point of view, too many people fail to realize the enormous growth that Kim has made to reform his father’s destruction. Kim has taken a huge step in his leadership to promote new agricultural and economic reforms and so far he has been making leaping progress. He has created more business and relationships with other countries and in turn it has lowered malnutrition rates significantly. Andrei Lankov, a very successful Russian scholar, stated, “Kim Jong Un has decided to do something his father was afraid of — he has started introducing significant elements of the market economy,” adds Prof Lankov. “He has basically said it is OK now to do business, but that does not mean liberalising politics”(FT). In addition, North Korea does not provide factual data and evidence for their crimes, and therefore we cannot prove him guilty during committee. Our rule is “innocent until proven guilty”, is it not? There is no substantial and untainted information to prove him guilty and therefore, in regards to the many allegations targeted towards Kim Jong-un (such as the death penalty rates and child family discrimination), he is completely innocent. The U.N. constantly tries to wager false allegations on Kim Jong-un and North Korea specifically because of the many suspicious rumors stemmed from other countries. In addition, the media doesn't portray the country and their leader truthfully. For example, U.S. president Donald Trump made many rude comments on Twitter calling Kim Jong -un “short and fat”, and even disrespected his leadership by saying that North Korea is dependent upon China. Instead of Kim Jong- un reacting obnoxiously, he stayed silent and continued to work hard and make his country more economically and agriculturally sufficient. Very recently, Kim Jong-un stopped the work being performed on his nuclear and missile sites. He has taken an enormous step by making an example for his nation and the world. In the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Jong- un stated that this progress is “a new stage” in a “historic” period. When keeping an open mind, one can see how far this remarkable and hardworking man has come, from being showered by his father’s ideas from the age of 7 to improving and reforming his country in the aftermath of his father’s destruction. Kim Jong-un is making major progress in his leadership and is destined to improve despite the poor media portrayal and tough situations that surround him. This decent leader has been through a lot, but has worked very hard to become a strong and reliable leader for his North Korean citizens.
Witness List Main Witness: Kim Jong-Un Prosecution Witnesses 1. Moon Jae-in - Leader of South Korea 2. Yeonmi Park - Escapee from North Korea 3. Niti Aisek - Colonel of a North Korean labor camp 4. Teh Poh Teik - Lawyer who is actively working to prove Kim Jong Un’s assistance in the murder of his half brother 5. Shinzō Abe - Leader of Japan 6. Yang Hyo Hae - North Korean refugee
Defense Witnesses 1. Dennis Rodman - schoolmate of Kim Jong-un 2. Vladimir Putin - President of the Russian Federation, ally with Kim Jong-Un 3. Ri Sol-ju- Kim Jong-Un’s wife 4. Lee Young-guk, Kim Jong-il’s (Kim Jong un’s father) former bodyguard 5. Pakistani president Arif Alvi - close ally with North Korea since the mid-1970s 6. Ri Yong-gil - military general of North Korea
Questions to consider: 1. What evidence is there to prove that he murdered his political enemies, family members, or citizens? 2. What part of his leadership style is necessary to keep the country under control and what part of his leadership can be charged as crimes against humanity? 3. How does DPRKs’ propaganda and strict restriction on information affect what we truly know about the going-ons inside the country? (i.e. how do we know what information is true?) 4. What exactly is being done inside the supposed labor camps and how does that fit into a crime against humanity? 5. Why have Kim Jong-Un and his past family members stayed in power for so long?