Author: Yana Vainilovich, Year 13
People in North Korea are forced to work in intolerable condition!
More than 75 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN
General Assembly (United Nations, 2024). However, to this day, there are lots of shocking and
alarming events, which violate human rights, happening worldwide. One of them is inhumane
working and life conditions in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). A secretive
and isolated country remains one of the harshest countries in the world. This unforgivable issue
shouldn’t be unnoticed.
“These 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,” – said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Tȕrk (The Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights,2024). The main difference of this problem is that
forced labour is institutionalised and has been influencing everyone in the country for a long
time. Violence and terrible working conditions penetrated and became a part of the North
Korean culture and social structure. The Chulsin-songbun system is a system of prescribed
social status based on different criterias such as loyalty to the regime, military ,and economic
background. This system abuses various human rights and personal boundaries, such as the
right to freedom of movement (13th article of the UDHR), the right to privacy (12th article of the
UDHR), the right to equality (1st and 2nd articles of the UDHR) and others. There are three
main social groups: the highest and the most powerful one is the core class, then goes the
wavering class and and the hostile class, which is at the very bottom. Also, Songbun has
approximately fifty subclasses. People in lower classes often face forced labour and other
restrictions listed in the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Tȕrk. Some of them can even end up in
political prisons or re-education camps with the most intolerable conditions. A North Korean
citizen doesn’t have to commit a crime or rob a bank to get this punishment, it is enough to be
considered disloyal to the country and the government to be sent to prison.
Despite the fact that North Korea is an isolated country. It also doesn’t have any willingness to
allow independent international organisations to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.
However, the world must not ignore the harsh and horrific regime of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea. Countries that deal or trade with North Korea must ensure that their sourcing
is ethical. Specifically, countries that employ North Koreans must also ensure that there are no
violations of human rights. “Economic prosperity should serve people, not be the reason for their
enslavement,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in the press release (The Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights,2024). Everyone deserves to have their human rights
respected.