19 Sep 2008 New report highlights continuing human rights abuses in North Korea; calls for international action DLA Piper, in conjunction with the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, is launching a new pro bono report entitled Failure to Protect: The Ongoing Challenge of North Korea. "The dismal human rights conditions in North Korea, and that government's refusal to address ongoing humanitarian crises, are a threat to security and stability in Asia and around the world," said George Mitchell, Former Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of DLA Piper. "This report is a call to action for the international community to address the many problems and tremendous hardships that the people of North Korea face. We are very proud to be a part of such an important project." Commissioned by the Honorable Václav Havel, the Honorable Kjell Magne Bondevik and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, the report is a sequel to our 2006 report Failure to Protect: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea. The new report provides important new details on the serious violations of rights by North Korea and calls for greater international engagement on human rights and humanitarian concerns. "Given the strategic and geopolitical threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear program, the world has tended to overlook the humanitarian threat that this isolated regime poses to its own people on a daily basis," said Sheldon Krantz, a DLA Piper partner and Director of New Perimeter. "The United States and our international partners must make human rights a central focus of diplomatic efforts with regard to North Korea. An immediate, concrete step that we should take is to ensure that the food aid destined for North Korea actually reaches the people who need it. I am proud that our firm, working with such internationally recognized statesmen and humanitarians as Václav Havel, Elie Wiesel, Kjell Magne Bondevik and Stephen Solarz, along with our partners at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the Oslo Center, is helping to shine a light on this dark corner of the world and pressing for solutions to this ongoing human tragedy." In 2007, DLA Piper lawyers in the United States devoted over 128,000 hours to pro bono matters -- an average of approximately 67 hours per lawyer. The report is being launched in Washington on Friday September 19th at the National Press Club and then in New York on Monday September 22nd at the Tudor Hotel. Attached is the report in English and Korean.