North Korea’s use of forced labor has become “deeply institutionalized” and, in some cases, serious human rights violations have been committed in the process that could amount to the crime against humanity of enslavement, a U.N report said.
The country has maintained an “extensive and multilayered” system of forced labor as a means of controlling and monitoring its people and there is “the widespread use of violence and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” by officials to discipline workers who fail to meet work quotas, said the United Nations Human Rights Office in a report Tuesday on North Korea’s use of forced labor
The report was based on 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses of such labor exploitation, looking at six distinct types of forced labor, including labor in detention, compulsory state-assigned jobs, military conscription, and work performed by people sent abroad by Pyongyang to earn currency for the country.
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The U.N. cited various testimonies from victims of the country’s forced labor system, including individuals forbidden to leave their worksites and a female worker who was sexually abused by a political guidance officer.
One woman interviewed for the report, who had been subjected to forced labor in a pretrial holding center, described how, if she failed to meet her daily quota, she and the seven others in her cell were punished.
“The testimonies in this report give a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced labor upon people, both in its scale, and in the levels of violence and inhuman treatment,” U.N. Human Rights spokesperson Liz Throssell said at the biweekly a press briefing in Geneva.
“People are forced to work in intolerable conditions – often in dangerous sectors with the absence of pay, free choice, ability to leave, protection, medical care, time off, food and shelter. They are placed under constant surveillance, regularly beaten, while women are exposed to continuing risks of sexual violence.”
The report added forced labor not only provides a source of free labor for the state but also acts as a means for the state to control, monitor and indoctrinate the population, calling on Pyongyang to abolish its use and end any forms of slavery.
“Economic prosperity should serve people, not be the reason for their enslavement,” said Throssell. “Decent work, free choice, freedom from violence, and just and favorable conditions of work are all crucial components of the right to work. They must be respected and fulfilled, in all parts of society.”
The office also urged the international community to investigate and prosecute those suspected of committing international crimes, calling on the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.
South Korea welcomed the report, urging the North to follow its recommendations.
“We hope that this report will raise international awareness of the severe human rights situation in North Korea and strengthen international efforts to improve human rights conditions in North Korea,” the South’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.
Edited by Mike Firn.