UN Report Reveals Institutionalized Forced Labor in North Korea, Urges Global Action

Source: RESS RELEASE OHCHR (PIC COURTESY © Business Today)

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has institutionalized the use of forced labor against its citizens, raising significant human rights concerns, as highlighted in a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office. The report, released today, draws from multiple sources, including 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses who escaped forced labor and now reside abroad. The findings depict a grim reality of widespread suffering inflicted through forced labor, characterized by violence and inhumane treatment.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk emphasized the severity of the situation, noting the extensive suffering endured by individuals subjected to forced labor. These individuals are often compelled to work in dangerous conditions without pay, choice, or the ability to leave. They face constant surveillance, regular beatings, and a lack of basic necessities such as protection, medical care, and food. Women, in particular, are at ongoing risk of sexual violence. The report includes harrowing testimonies, such as one victim who recounted being beaten and having their food cut for not meeting daily quotas, and another who described a woman being sexually abused by a superior.

The report identifies six distinct types of forced labor in North Korea: labor in detention, compulsory State-assigned jobs, military conscription, revolutionary “Shock Brigades,” work mobilizations, and labor performed by citizens sent abroad to earn currency for the State. It concludes that North Koreans are controlled and exploited through a complex system of forced labor aimed at serving the State’s interests rather than the people’s. This system is used to control, monitor, and indoctrinate the population, with particularly grave conditions found in detention facilities, where forced labor can amount to enslavement, a crime against humanity.

Following school or military service, every North Korean is assigned to a workplace by the State, which also dictates their place of residence. The lack of free choice of work, inability to form trade unions, threat of imprisonment for failing to attend work, and continuous non-payment of wages reflect the institutionalized nature of forced labor in the country. Military conscripts, who must serve for at least 10 years, are often forced into hard and dangerous labor in agriculture or construction, frequently without adequate health and safety measures, leading to malnutrition and diseases such as tuberculosis.

The DPRK also sends selected citizens overseas to work and earn foreign currency for the State, with workers losing up to 90% of their wages, being under constant surveillance, and facing severe restrictions on their freedom. This institutionalized labor system extends to schools, where children are forced to participate in tasks like clearing riversides or planting trees. The report calls on the North Korean Government to abolish forced labor and end any forms of slavery. It also urges the international community to investigate and prosecute those responsible for international crimes and calls on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk emphasized that economic prosperity should benefit people, not enslave them, and highlighted the importance of decent work, free choice, freedom from violence, and favorable working conditions as essential components of the right to work.