Forced labour system in North Korea shows features of ‘servitude, slavery’: UN

GENEVA - North Korea’s institutionalised and extensive system of forced labour, spanning prisons, schools, military conscription and overseas dispatches, “exhibits features of servitude and slavery” in some instances, the UN human rights office said on July 16.

The report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is based on sources, including 183 in-depth interviews conducted from June 2015 to May 2023 with victims and witnesses of forced labour who have fled North Korea and now live in South Korea.

The report pointed out that North Korea’s forced labour in some cases showed features of servitude and slavery prohibited by international human rights law “due to the element of ‘ownership’ exercised over the person”.

“In some instances, the level of control, type of treatment and level of exploitation of those subjected to forced labour may reach the threshold of ‘ownership’ that not only violates the human rights obligation to prohibit slavery, but may also constitute the crime against humanity of enslavement,” the report read.

Instances of forced labour occur in North Korea where people’s movements are restricted and monitored, including in places of detention, “Shock Brigade” deployments, overseas labour assignments and some cases of military conscripts’ forced labour. Shock Brigades range from military-like brigades to ad hoc teams, and are assigned to specific state-supervised projects.

One male defector said he and his colleagues “could only sleep two to three hours per day”, with no days off during Shock Brigade deployments.

The report said the instances of forced labour exhibited several interconnected features.

There is strict control over individuals’ movements and physical environments, including restricted access to communication devices. Psychological control is enforced through “life review” or self-criticism sessions, where deviations from state ideology are met with threats of punishment.

To prevent or deter escape, measures such as armed guards, the use or threat of violence, and physical punishment, including collective punishments tied to work quotas, are employed.

Additionally, there is a pattern of cruel treatment and abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence, denial of adequate food, unsanitary living conditions and limited access to healthcare.

One female defector, speaking anonymously about her overseas labour experience in 2020, testified: “I couldn’t sleep much. I had no freedom and I was under constant control.”

A male defector who worked overseas reported: “We were not allowed to leave the work site.”

The report highlighted that North Korean people “are controlled and exploited through an extensive and multi-layered system of forced labour”.

“Forced labour provides the state with a source of free labour and acts as a means to control, monitor and indoctrinate the population,” the report read.

“Forced labour is institutionalised through the country’s prison system, schools, compulsory state-allocated employment, military conscription, Shock Brigade deployments, inminban, Women’s Union deployments and overseas labour.”

The term “inminban”, meaning people’s group, refers to neighbourhood surveillance units with compulsory membership in North Korea.

“The use of forced labour against its citizens has become deeply institutionalised, raising serious human rights concerns. It touches nearly everyone’s lives,” Ms Eleonor Fernandez, an officer at the UN human rights office in Seoul, told the July 16 press briefing.

Ms Fernandez explained that North Korean citizens “are forced to work in intolerable conditions – often in dangerous sectors”, highlighting that “they are placed under constant surveillance and regularly beaten, and women are continually at risk of sexual violence”.

The UN human rights office underscored that the North Korean government “must abolish the use of forced labour and end any form of slavery or servitude, prohibited by international law”.

“The government must replace the system of labour employment based on coercion, including the threat of detention, with one founded on the free choice of the individual worker,” highlighted the UN report. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK