ANDThe use of forced labour in North Koreaof which victims range from prisoners to soldiers or citizens abroad, is “deeply institutionalized” in the country and in some cases borders on slaverya crime against humanity, reveals a report on Tuesday United Nations.
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The 84-page document from the UN Human Rights Officecompiled from interviews conducted over the past decade with 183 North Koreans who fled the country and are now living in South Korea, provides details about this exploitation under the isolated Kim regime.
They were forced to work in intolerable conditions, often in dangerous sectors, without pay, freedom of choice, possibility to resign, protection, medical care, rest time, food and accommodation.”
“They were forced to work in intolerable conditions, often in dangerous sectors, without pay, freedom of choice, the possibility of resignation, protection, medical care, rest time, food and accommodation,” said the head of human rights of the United Nations, Volker Türk, when presenting the report.
The workers were also subjected to constant surveillance, were frequently beaten, and in the case of women (main witnesses of forced labour in detention centres) were often victims of sexual violence, the Austrian High Commissioner stressed.
The report identifies various types of forced labour in North Korea, including forced labour in prisons and other detention centres, forced labour by employees whose jobs have been assigned by the state (something very common under the communist regime), and forced labour observed among army soldiers.
This type of exploitation also violates the human rights of citizens sent abroad to send foreign currency to the regime, those called up for special mobilizations or members of the so-called “shock brigades”, usually in the agricultural and construction sectors.
Exploited prisoners
Some of the most raw testimonies in the report are those offered by more than a hundred women sentenced to forced labor after being forcibly repatriated after crossing the border illegally. (This is usually the one that separates China and North Korea, although the report does not specify it).
Having fallen into human trafficking networks that sometimes force them into prostitution or forced marriages, they are repatriated and in detention they often suffer sexual and physical violence, sometimes forced abortions and denial of medical and hygiene services.
Detained in prisons, re-education camps and other detention centres, victims recount harsh living and working conditions in agricultural, industrial and other jobs where they were often required to meet daily production quotas and were beaten or deprived of food if they failed to meet them.
Some of the most raw testimonies in the report are those offered by more than a hundred women sentenced to forced labor after being forcibly repatriated after crossing the border illegally.
“I was sent to grow corn, cabbage, radishes… there was no machinery, so seven or eight of us pulled a cart that would normally be used with oxen,” says one of these women.
Another detainee, assigned to construction work, said in the report that he was so hungry that he ate weeds and grass, which made him sick, while another, assigned to a group that carried bags of cement, said they did not have masks, constantly breathed in cement dust and “could barely breathe.”
In the North Korean army, the report adds, soldiers, who in many cases have to serve ten years or mores, they are often forced to work in agriculture or construction, in dangerous conditions and without adequate health and safety measures.
A former nurse interviewed for the report recounted that many of the soldiers she treated showed symptoms of malnutrition, which in the worst cases degenerated into tuberculosis.
Leave the country and continue to be exploited
Abroad, North Korean citizens – often with certain social privileges – are forced to donate 90% of their earnings to the State, in sectors such as those already mentioned (agriculture, construction) but also in the medical profession or in the hospitality industry.
To maintain control over these citizens abroad, their passports are confiscated, they are constantly monitored and often live in very poor conditions, with little free time or contact with their families in North Korea, the report said.
Overall, the regime controlled by Kim Jong-un, inherited from his father and grandfather, controls and exploits its citizens “through an extensive system of forced labor at various levels” aimed at the interests of the State rather than of the citizens, concludes the United Nations study.
A system in which every North Korean, after completing his studies or military service, is assigned to a workplace without choice, without the possibility of forming unions, and where he lives under the threat of being arrested if he does not go to work, although sometimes he does not receive a salary for it.
In light of the report’s conclusions, the United Nations Human Rights Office is calling on North Korea to abolish forced labour “and to put an end to all forms of slavery.”
It also calls on the UN Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.
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