UN report details North Korea's 'deeply institutionalized' forced labor

The report called on the North Korean government to "abolish forced labor and end all forms of slavery."

Eleonor Fernandez, human rights officer at the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, introduces the office's new report on forced labor in North Korea, at the Press Center in central Seoul on Tuesday. The report was based on 183 interviews conducted between June 2015 and May 2023 with North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea. [YONHAP]

In a recent UN report, a former North Korean overseas laborer who defected to the South recounts harrowing work conditions where he worked for 15 to 16 hours a day, sometimes even overnight.

"But if, after one month, we’d failed to meet the quota set by the state, we were not provided with any salary after a month of slavery," he said in the latest report on North Korea's forced labor issue released by the UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday.

This testimony is part of a new report titled "Forced Labour by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," released by the UN Human Rights Office. The report is based on 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with defectors and witnesses who have since escaped to South Korea.

Former overseas workers selected to earn foreign currency reported losing 80 to 90 percent of their salary to the North Korean government.

The UN agency assessed that North Korea's use of forced labor against its citizens has become even more "deeply institutionalized," describing it as "enslavement."

The report called on the North Korean government to "abolish forced labor and end all forms of slavery." It urged the international community to investigate and prosecute those responsible for international crimes and recommended that the UN Security Council refer the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"These people are forced to work in intolerable conditions — often in dangerous sectors without pay, free choice, ability to leave, protection, medical care, time off, food and shelter," said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk. "They are placed under constant surveillance, regularly beaten, while women are exposed to continuing risks of sexual violence."

One victim recounted "being beaten and having food supplies cut" if daily quotas were not met. Another recalled that an older female acquaintance was "sexually abused by a supervisor."

The report categorized North Korea's forced labor into six types: labor in detention, compulsory state-assigned jobs, military conscription, revolutionary “shock brigades,” work mobilizations and overseas work assignments to earn currency for the state.

According to the report, North Korean citizens are "controlled and exploited through an extensive and multi-layered system of forced labor" designed to serve state interests rather than the people. This system is described as a means for the state to control, monitor and indoctrinate the population.

The most egregious abuses occur in places of detention, the report said, where victims are systematically forced to work under the threat of violence and inhumane conditions. The report suggests that the state's total control over detainees may, in some cases, amount to "enslavement" and "a crime against humanity."

After completing school or military service, every North Korean is assigned a workplace by the state, which also dictates their place of residence, according to the report. There is a lack of free choice, an inability to form trade unions, the threat of imprisonment for non-compliance and non-payment of wages.

"The aim of this report is to introduce forced labor to the global audience in the broadest terms, all forms of forced slavery, and that's what we set out to achieve," said James Heenan, head of the UN's Human Rights Office in Seoul, during a press conference held in central Seoul commemorating the release of the report. "We also wanted to make sure that the legal analysis was as strong as possible — and I think this is the strongest legal analysis there is on forced labor out there at the moment."

Eleonor Fernandez, human rights officer at the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, explained that the report, which is based on victims' statements, qualifies it as evidence for international criminal law.

"We recommend not only a referral to the ICC but also pursuing cases under extraterritorial or universal jurisdiction," she said.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]