Volker Turk United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The UN warned on Tuesday of a deeply institutionalised system of forced labour in North Korea, which in some cases could amount to the crime against humanity of enslavement.
In a damning report, the United Nations rights office detailed how people in the reclusive and authoritarian country were โcontrolled and exploited through an extensive and multi-layered system of forced labourโ.
โThe testimonies in this report give a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced labour upon people,โ UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement. โThese people are forced to work in intolerable conditions โ often in dangerous sectors with the absence of pay, free choice, ability to leave, protection, medical care, time off, food and shelter,โ he said. Many faced regular beatings and women were โexposed to continuing risks of sexual violenceโ, he added.
The rights office relied on a range of sources for the report, including 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses who escaped North Korea and were living abroad.
โIf we didnโt meet the daily quota, we were beaten and our food was cut,โ said one victim cited in the report.
The latest allegations follow a landmark report published by a UN team of investigators a decade ago which documented forced labour among other rampant rights abuses such as deliberate starvation, rape and torture in North Korea.
Tuesdayโs report called on North Korea to โend forced labour in all its formsโ, โend slavery and slavery-like practicesโ, and โabolish the use of child labourโ, among a long list of recommendations. It also called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.
