Forced labor system in NK shows features of 'servitude, slavery': UN

Forced labor 'touches nearly everyone's lives' in North Korea, says UN human rights officer

North Korean workers travel on a truck in the street of Kaesong Industrial Complex on February 27, 2006 in Kaesong, North Korea. (Getty Images)

North Korea's institutionalized and extensive system of forced labor, spanning prisons, schools, military conscription, and overseas dispatches, "exhibits features of servitude and slavery" in some instances, the UN Human Rights Office said Tuesday.

The report of the Office of the United Nations 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 labor who have fled North Korea and now live in South Korea.

The report pointed out that North Korea's forced labor 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 labor 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 labor occur in North Korea where people's movements are restricted and monitored, including in places of detention, "Shock Brigade" deployments, overseas labor assignments, and some cases of military conscripts' forced labor.

"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. We had no days off" during Shock Brigade deployments.

The report said the instances of forced labor 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 health care.

One female defector, speaking anonymously about her overseas labor experience in 2020, testified, "I couldn't sleep much. I had no freedom, and I was under constant control."

Another unnamed male defector who worked overseas reported, "We were not allowed to leave the work site."

Eleonor Fernandez, a human rights officer at the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, speaks at a press conference held on Tuesday. (Yonhap)

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

"Forced labor provides the State with a source of free labor and acts as a means to control, monitor, and indoctrinate the population," the report read.

"Forced labor is institutionalized through the country's prison system, schools, compulsory state-allocated employment, military conscription, Shock Brigade deployments, inminban, Women's Union deployments, and overseas labor."

The term "inminban," meaning people's group, refers to neighborhood surveillance units with compulsory membership in North Korea.

"The use of forced labor against its citizens has become deeply institutionalized, raising serious human rights concerns. It touches nearly everyone's lives," Eleonor Fernandez, a human rights officer at the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, told Tuesday's press briefing.

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, 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 labor and end any forms of slavery or servitude, prohibited by international law."

"The government must replace the system of labor employment based on coercion, including the threat of detention, with one founded on the free choice of the individual worker," highlighted the UN report.

By Ji Da-gyum(dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)