UN calls for end to forced labour in North Korea

The international body presented a detailed report with testimonies about the abusive practices of the Kim Jong-un regime, which could constitute crimes against humanity.

The United Nations Organization (HIM) has denounced a system of forced labor in North Korea, which in some cases could be described as slavery, which would constitute a crime against humanity. In a detailed report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has revealed how the North Korean regime, led by Kim Jong-uncontrols and exploits its population through a vast, multi-layered system of forced labor.

“The testimonies collected in this report provide a shocking and heartbreaking insight into the suffering inflicted by forced labour, both in terms of its scale and the level of violence and inhuman treatment,” High Commissioner Volker Türk said in a statement.

The report details that North Koreans are forced to work in intolerable conditions, often in dangerous sectors, without pay, without choice, without the right to resign, without protection, without adequate medical care, without holidays, without sufficient food and without adequate shelter. Many of these people are regularly beaten and women face constant risks of sexual violence.

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The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights collected information from a variety of sources, including 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses who managed to flee North Korea and now live abroad. “If we did not meet the daily quota, they would beat us and reduce our food ration,” said one victim.

The report focuses on an institutionalized system that includes six different types of forced labor, including labor in detention and during military conscription, which in North Korea lasts a minimum of 10 years. There is also compulsory labor assigned by the state and the use of revolutionary “shock brigades,” groups of citizens organized by the government and forced to perform arduous manual labor, often in construction and agriculture.

The most serious concerns relate to places of detention, where victims of forced labour are systematically forced to work under the threat of physical violence and in inhumane conditions, the UN notes. After completing their studies or military service, each North Korean is assigned to a workplace by the state, which also determines where they must live.

The UN has urged North Korea to “end forced labour in all its forms”, “abolish slavery and slave-like practices” and eliminate child labour. It has also called on the international community to ensure strict due diligence in any economic engagement with North Korea and to ensure that any work performed by North Koreans abroad is voluntary, adequately remunerated and carried out under decent working conditions.

The UN has also asked the Security Council to consider involving the International Criminal Court in this matter.