The human rights record of North Korea is marked by significant and repeated human rights violations. Groups such as Human Rights Watch, the United Nations and Freedom House have condemned its human rights record as one of the worst in the world. Amnesty International considers North Korea to have no contemporary parallel with respect to violations of liberty.
North Korean citizens do not have free speech, with only media providers operated by the government being legal and a lack of private media providers. According to reports from Amnesty International and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, by 2017 an estimated 200,000 prisoners were incarcerated in camps for political crimes, and were subjected to forced labour, physical abuse, torture, and execution.
The North Korean government strictly monitors the activities of foreign visitors. Aid workers are subjected to considerable scrutiny and are excluded from certain places and regions the government does not want them to enter. Since North Korean citizens cannot travel freely through their own country or travel abroad, the nation's human rights record has mostly been constructed from stories from refugees and defectors. The government's position, expressed through the Korean Central News Agency, is that international criticism of its human rights record is a pretext for overthrowing its Juche-based system, while the abuses of its critics go unpunished.KCNA Assails Role Played by Japan for UN Passage of "Human Rights" Resolution against DPRK , KCNA, December 22, 2005.
The General Assembly of the United Nations has since 2003 annually adopted a resolution condemning the country's human rights record. The resolution of December 19, 2011, passed by a vote of 123–16 with 51 abstentions, urged the government in Pyongyang to end its "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights", which included public executions and arbitrary detentions. North Korea rejected the resolution, saying it was politically motivated and based upon untrue fabrications. In February 2014, a UN special commission published a detailed, 400-page account based on first-hand testimonies documenting "unspeakable atrocities" committed by the North Korean government.
Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
On May 6, 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council announced an appointment of Michael Kirby of Australia, Sonja Biserko of Serbia, and Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia as members of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
[The] commission of inquiry will investigate the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ... including the violation of the right to food, the violations associated with prison camps, torture and inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention, discrimination, violations of freedom of expression, violations of the right to life, violations of freedom of movement, and enforced disappearances, including in the form of abductions of nationals of other States, with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.
On August 20, 2013, the commission began five days of public hearings at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea receiving testimony from defectors, and on August 29, 2013, in Japan from relatives of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s."UN human rights probe on DPR Korea set to begin hearings in Japan" , UN News Centre, August 23, 2013. North Korea describes the inquiry as "a political plot" and it has not given investigators access to the country. The UN panel interviewed witnesses in South Korea, Japan, and the UK, and it also conducted hearings in the U.S. on October 30 and 31, 2013. The commission said it has consistently asked North Korean representatives to take part in the public hearings and question witnesses.
On February 17, 2014, the panel published its findings in a 400-page report. The commission accused the North Korean government of being involved in systemic, widespread and gross human rights violations. The panel chairman Michael Kirby described some acts by stating that they resembled those committed by the Nazis.
Roberta Cohen, joint chair of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said it was now up to the world community to take action to protect those persecuted and bring the perpetrators to justice. The DPRK rejected the findings. In a statement it said the commission was "a product of politicization of human rights on the part of the EU and Japan, in alliance with the US hostile policy". On November 18, 2014, the UN voted in favor of a draft resolution to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Position of the DPRK Human-rights discourse in North Korea has a history that predates the establishment of the state in 1948. Based on Marxist theory, Confucian tradition, and the Juche idea, North Korean human-rights theory regards rights as conditional rather than universal, holds that collective rights take priority over individual rights, and that welfare and subsistence rights are important.
Kim Il Sung argued that holding political prisoners and democracy are not mutually exclusive, and that he valued democracy. The punishment of actively anti-social or anti-socialist persons is instead argued as a means to protect the country's democracy from those who wish to abuse it.Our communists are not hiding the Party's identity or class-consciousness in implementing democracy. Socialist democracy is not supra-class democracy that can provide freedom and rights to hostile elements who oppose socialism or impure elements who act against the interests of the People. The type of democracy which can guarantee freedom and rights to the People, including workers, peasants, and the working intelligentsia and at the same time which can punish a small number of class enemies, is the type of socialist democracy we have in our country.The government of North Korea claims that the Constitution of the DPRK guarantees the human rights of its people, and that these guarantees are fully elaborated in its laws and regulations. It claims that these human-rights guarantees and laws are strictly enforced throughout the country and with respect to every individual.
Seven months after the release of the Commission of Inquiry report, North Korea released its own DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies report, which claims that North Koreans enjoy "genuine human rights". North Korea also agreed to implement 113 of the 268 recommendations to improve its human rights performance made at the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review process. Kirby cited North Korea's participation in the Universal Periodic Review, the country's publication of their own human rights report, and Hwang Pyong-so's visit to the 2014 Asian Games a "charm offensive" and expressed skepticism about whether the North Korean government has become genuinely concerned about human rights or is simply preparing for imminent criticism in the UN. Kirby welcomed parts of the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies report as "fair comment" but noted that it fails to discuss the issues raised in the Commission of Inquiry report.
Civil liberties and law North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung rejected the concept of civil rights for people who oppose the regime. There is an extensive system of informants throughout North Korea which monitor Koreans with respect to political and other possible infractions without reference to formal civil rights.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has officially acknowledged the widespread human rights violations that regularly occur in North Korea. United Nations' Human Rights Resolution 2005/11 referred to specific types of abuses within North Korea:
Labor rights North Korea is one of the few nations in the world that does not belong to the International Labour Organization (ILO). However, ILO conventions are considered international labor standards, regardless of ratification. The ruling Korean Workers' Party firmly controls the only authorized trade union organization, the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea."Labor Rights" , Chapter on North Korea (page 2), World Report 2013, Human Rights Watch. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
Forced labor at the behest of the government has been institutionalized. Children (some as young as 11) are forced to work on farms and construction sites at the behest of the government, and may be demanded to collect scrap metals and other materials by schools to be sold. Children are also required to do landscaping work such as cleaning riversides and planting trees. The labor can be intensive and children living in the country's (detention camps) are also forced to engage in heavy work.
A report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on forced labor in North Korea concluded that North Koreans are exploited by an extensive multi-layered system of forced labor directed towards the interests of the state rather than the people and which is a means for the government to control, monitor, and indoctrinate the population. The report found that the institutionalized forced labor system begins with children still in school and continues into adulthood. Military conscripts are routinely forced to work in agriculture and construction. After completing school and military service, North Koreans are assigned their jobs by the state, with no free choice of work, and may still be mobilized into "shock brigades" to carry out manual labor, often in agriculture and construction, for little or no pay. North Koreans carrying out forced labor are subjected to poor working conditions without pay, and are subjected to beatings with women also at risk of sexual violence. The report found widespread abuses in the exploitation of prisoners for labor to the extent that it could constitute slavery.
Freedom of speech and assembly
The North Korean constitution has clauses nominally guaranteeing the freedoms of speech and assembly. In practice, other clauses take precedence, including the requirement that citizens follow a socialist way of life. Criticism of the government and its leaders is strictly curtailed and making such statements can be cause for arrest and consignment to one of North Korea's "re-education" camps.
There are numerous civic organizations, but all of them appear to be operated by the government. All routinely praise the government and perpetuate the personality cults of the Kim family. Defectors indicate that the promotion of the cult of personality is one of the primary functions of almost all films, plays, and books produced within the country.
Freedom of information Information about the outside world is strictly curtailed. All but a minuscule minority of North Korean citizens are prohibited from using the Internet. The government maintains an intranet called Kwangmyong which is disconnected from the global Internet. The government distributes all radio and television sets; citizens are forbidden to alter them to make it possible to receive broadcasts from other nations; doing so carries severe penalties. Consumption of foreign media is strictly prohibited and can even be punished by execution.
Freedom of religion
The North Korean constitution nominally protects religious freedom, as long as it is not used to harm the state or the social order. However, in practice, there is no genuine religious freedom, and the government severely restricts religious activity except if it is supervised by government organizations.