Government: "North Korea Exploits Child Labor Under Regime Leadership"

North Korea Human Rights Promotion Committee Convenes 2nd Plenary Meeting
Discussion on 'Child Exploitation' Committed Under North Korean Regime
Defector Committee Members Testify to Direct Victim Experiences

The government criticized North Korea for systematically exploiting children for labor and urged compliance with the 'UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,' which North Korea ratified in 1990. North Korea's exploitation of children has been consistently raised as an issue at the UN level and has been criticized as reminiscent of a 'modern-day slavery.'

According to the Ministry of Unification on the 12th, the North Korean Human Rights Promotion Committee (Chairman Lee Jeong-hoon) convened its second plenary meeting the previous day at the Inter-Korean Relations Management Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to discuss the issue of child labor in North Korea. The topic was addressed ahead of the World Day Against Child Labor (annually on June 12).

Children mobilized for road repair work in a rural village in North Hamgyong Province, North Korea, in June 2014. [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

According to the government, North Korea prohibits labor for children under 16 years old under Article 31 of the Socialist Constitution, Article 15 of the Socialist Labor Law, and Article 19 of the Child Rights Protection Law. Punishments for those who mobilize children for labor are also stipulated under criminal law. In 2019, during the review of North Korea's fifth report on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, North Korea stated, "Students in North Korea experience productive labor by visiting farms and factories for three weeks each academic year starting from middle school, and child labor other than the productive labor included in the curriculum is prohibited."

However, according to the Ministry of Unification's investigation, North Korean students are mobilized not only for productive labor as part of the curriculum but also for after-school labor and labor under private instructions from teachers. The North Korean Human Rights Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly since 2011 also pointed out that North Korea violates the obligation to prohibit economic exploitation and hazardous or dangerous labor of children.

In October 2023, representatives of the 9th Chosun Boy Scouts Conference are opening gifts received from Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea.

During this meeting, some North Korean human rights promotion committee members who defected from North Korea testified about the forced labor they experienced during their school years.

Committee member Lim Cheol said, "I was mobilized for various types of labor from around the age of eleven," adding, "Notably, I was mobilized to pick rice ears and catch grasshoppers." Individual or class quotas were set, and in the afternoons, under the supervision of the homeroom teacher, they wandered the fields for more than five hours. He explained, "Long hours of labor caused pain in my back and knees, and I often returned home exhausted." He also said, "Besides this labor, we frequently went to the mountains to pick wild vegetables like shepherd's purse and water dropwort to send to the Party Central Committee, and in winter, we gathered firewood for the school."

Committee member Kim Eun-joo revealed that the most painful experience at a young age was forced labor called 'rural mobilization' or 'effort mobilization.' Kim recalled, "When we weeded cornfields after rain, we pulled weeds with bare hands, and it was common to get cuts on our faces and hands from corn leaves or grass." She added, "Rural mobilization required walking more than two hours round trip, and because we worked without rest, our calves swelled, and our whole bodies ached the next day." She also said, "Flower children were detained in camps and lost their lives not only due to forced labor but also from various infectious diseases and accidents."

The National Union Organization Conference of the Korean Children's Union held this April to commemorate the birthday of Chairman Kim Il-sung.

Based on such testimonies, the committee discussed the issue that North Korean children are mobilized for harsh and various forms of forced labor. It was pointed out that children are deprived of the opportunity to receive normal education at school and enjoy a happy childhood, and are exposed to mental and physical threats without safety equipment in dangerous labor environments.

A Ministry of Unification official criticized, "The biggest problem with the exploitation of child labor in North Korea is that it is carried out under the direct leadership of the North Korean regime." The official emphasized, "Since North Korea has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government will cooperate with the international community to ensure that practical measures are taken to improve children's human rights within North Korea."