This content was first published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
North Korea’s use of forced labour has become “deeply entrenched” and, in some cases, serious human rights breaches have been committed in the process that may amount to the crime against humanity of servitude, a U. N statement said.  ,
The United Nations Human Rights Office reported on the use of forced labour in North Korea on Tuesday in a statement on the use of forced labor as a means of controlling and monitoring its citizens, and there is” the common use of violence and violent, inhumane, and degrading care” by officers to punish employees who violate work limits.
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.
The United Nations cited a number of testimonials from victims of the country’s forced labor system, including a woman who was sexually abused by a political guidance officer and individuals who were told not to leave their jobsites.
One woman who spoke for the report and who had been subjected to forced labor in a pretrial detention facility described how she and the seven others in her cell were punished if they broke their daily quota.
At the biweekly press briefing in Geneva, U.N. Human Rights spokesperson Liz Throssell stated that the testimonies in this report provide” a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted upon people by forced labor, both in terms of its scale and in terms of the levels of violence and inhuman treatment.”
” 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 called on Pyongyang to end slavery and put an end to any forms of slavery, not only because it provides a source of free labor for the state but also serves as a means for the state to control, monitor, and indoctrinate the population.
“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 U.N. Security Council should send the situation to the International Criminal Court, along with a plea to the international community to investigate and prosecute those suspected of committing international crimes.
South Korea welcomed the report, urging the North to follow its recommendations.
The South’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release that” 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 there.”
