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STORY: OHCHR / NORTH KOREA FORCED LABOUR
TRT: 04:12
SOURCE: OHCHR / UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 JULY 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Aerial shot, Palais des Nations
16 JULY 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The testimonies in this report give a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced labour on people, both in its scale, and in the levels of violence and inhuman treatment.”
4. Wide shot, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “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.”
6. Wide shot, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Economic prosperity should serve people, not be the reason for their enslavement. Decent work, free choice, freedom from violence, and just and favourable conditions of work are all crucial components of the right to work. They must be respected and fulfilled, in all parts of society.”
8. Wide shot, press room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “Detainees are systematically compelled to work under the threat of punishment, including physical violence. They live in inhumane conditions, with no choice, little food, scarce health care and disproportionate work quotas.”
10. Wide shot, press room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “One woman who was subjected to forced labour as a pre-trial detainee said: ‘If I failed to meet my daily quota all eight persons in my cell were punished. We might be punished by additional work hours or a bigger quota to fill.’”
12. Wide shot, press room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “Within this context of detention, given the almost total control by the State over the lives of detainees, and the widespread extraction of forced labour in these prisons, it in some instances reaches the level of effective ‘ownership’ of these individuals, which is an element of the crime against humanity of enslavement.”
14. Wide shot, press room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “Work is hard, dangerous, and exhausting, with – again – very few health and safety measures, a lack of food and sometimes even a lack of shelter. A nurse who was working in a military hospital told us that ‘most soldiers came in to the clinic malnourished, and then came down with tuberculosis, because they were so physically weak and tired from this work’.”
16. Wide shot, press room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “After leaving military service or, for most women leaving school, every North Korean is given a State-assigned job. The Workers’ Party of Korea has full and exclusive control over all job assignments, to factories, mines and so forth. Again, victims reported the absence of free choice obviously, but also a lack of ability to collectively bargain, the threat of imprisonment or violence for failure to attend work or if they are complaining about the non-payment of wages. This affects millions upon millions of North Koreans.”
18. Wide shot, press room
19. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “The conditions described in the Shock Brigades are indeed shocking. Little concern for health and safety, scarce food, scarce shelter, and punishment for failure to meet quotas.”
20. Wide shots, press room
21. SOUNDBITE (English) James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul: “Those workers, who are looking for this sort of work because of the hardship at home, go abroad and discover very harsh conditions, hard and dangerous work, losing up to 90 per cent of their wages to the State, while being under constant surveillance, with no freedom of movement, passports confiscated, cramped living conditions, no time off – most of them would tell us that they had one or maybe two days off a month.”
22. Wide shot, press room
The UN Human Rights Office today (16 Jul) released a report on the institutionalised use of forced labour by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) against its citizens, which raises a broad range of serious human rights concerns.
The report is based on various sources, including 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses of forced labour who managed to escape and now live abroad.
“The testimonies in this report give a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced labour upon people, both in its scale, and in the levels of violence and inhuman treatment,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Liz Throssell said at the biweekly a press briefing in Geneva.
“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,” she said.
The report looks at six distinct types of forced labour: labour in detention, compulsory State-assigned jobs, military conscription, the use of “Shock Brigades”, work mobilisations and work performed by people sent abroad by the DPRK to earn currency for the State.
The UN Human Rights Office is calling on North Korea to abolish the use of forced labour and end any forms of slavery. It is also urging the international community to investigate and prosecute those suspected of committing international crimes. The report also calls on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.
“Economic prosperity should serve people, not be the reason for their enslavement,” said Throssell. “Decent work, free choice, freedom from violence, and just and favourable conditions of work are all crucial components of the right to work. They must be respected and fulfilled, in all parts of society.”
James Heenan, the UN Human Rights Office’s representative in Seoul, focusing on the human rights situation in the DPRK, said that perhaps the most concerning aspect was forced labour extracted from people in detention, be it education camps or prisons or political prison camps.
“Detainees are systematically compelled to work under the threat of punishment, including physical violence. They do so in inhumane conditions, with no choice, little food, scarce health care and disproportionate work quotas,” he told reporters, speaking online from the South Korean capital.
One woman interviewed for the report, who had been subjected to forced labour in a pre-trial holding centre, described how if she failed to meet her daily quota, she and the seven others in her cell were punished, Heenan said.
“Within this context, given the almost total control by the State over the lives of detainees, the widespread extraction of forced labour in DPRK prisons may in some instances reach degrees of effective “ownership” over individuals, which is an element of the crime against humanity of enslavement,” said Heenan.
Heenan said military conscripts are required to serve 10 years or more and are routinely forced to work in agriculture or construction – usually with little or no link to their military duties.
“Work is hard, dangerous and exhausting, with few health and safety measures, a lack of adequate food and water, and insufficient healthcare,” he said. “A former nurse working in a military hospital reported that ‘most soldiers with malnourishment also came down with tuberculosis, since they were physically weak and tired’.”
After people leave military service or schooling (for women), every North Korean is assigned to a workplace by the State, Heenan explained.
“The Workers’ Party of Korea has full and exclusive control over all job assignments, which include assignments to factories, mines and construction facilities. Again, victims reported the absence of free choice of work, the lack of ability to form trade unions, the threat of imprisonment or violence for failure to attend work and the non-payment of wages. This affects millions of North Koreans. Moreover, compulsory State-allocated employment is used as a means of political coercion and education.”
Another type of forced labour discussed in the report is “Shock Brigades”, which are State-organised groups of citizens forced to carry out “arduous manual labour” that are sent often far from their homes to complete particular projects under State supervision, says the report. A project could last for months or even years, during which workers are required to live on site, with little or no remuneration.
“The conditions described in the Shock Brigades are indeed shocking,” Heenan told reporters. “There is little concern for health and safety, scarce food, even scarce shelter in some cases. And again, no choice, with punishment for failure to meet quotas.”
The report also looks at the situation of overseas workers: those North Koreas that the Government sends abroad to earn valuable foreign currency for the State.
“Workers who were sent abroad reported harsh conditions and hard, dangerous work, as well as losing up to 90 per cent of their wages to the State, being under constant surveillance, with no freedom of movement, having their passports confiscated, living in cramped quarters, almost no time off, and extremely limited possibilities to contact their families,” Heenan said.
