Segye
Special episode for the fall, which plunges you into the heart of the North Korean castes!
After the Olympic Games in Paris this year, North Korea announced that it would reopen its borders to welcome tourism again. Indeed, this particular and isolated country had been forced to close them when the Covid 19 pandemic hit the entire planet. Therefore, it was not possible to enter the territory of North Korea, let alone to leave. The reopening of borders may allow some curious, and eager for answers, to go discover this dictatorial regime, perhaps, to grasp its subtleties.
To understand North Korea, it is important to know its origin. Formerly a unified country, it was when Japan took control of the country during the colonial period (1910-1945) that Korea began to gradually split. The first uprisings in 1919 with independence movements resulted in failures and many lives lost. Thus, on 21 March 1919, a provisional government was established in Vladivostok under the leadership of KIM ILSUNG, the future North Korean leader, and on 11 April 1919 another was proclaimed in Shanghai under the leadership of RHEE SYNGMAN, the future first president of South Korea. Each of these governments has its own ideology, like the two great powers of the Cold War, the USA in the south and the USSR in the north.
The two Koreas were facing a period of intense tension, and in 1947 the UN had a demarcation line established at the country’s 38th parallel. The following year, in the south, the Han People’s Republic (대한민국) was proclaimed. The following month, in the north, the Democratic Republic of the people of the Land of the Calm Morning (조선만주주의인민공화국 or 북한) was born. War breaks out between the two sides on 27 June 1950 before a ceasefire is declared on 27 July 1953. In North Korea, the Songbun policy will be gradually introduced to stratify the population according to a very strict social classification.
The Songbun is a system of discrimination set up by the North Korean government in the post-war period to reward the followers of the communist regime of KIM ILSUNG (leader from 1948 to 1994) and punish Japanese collaborators or political dissidents. Information about the Songbun is largely classified as confidential, and it is difficult to obtain it except by gathering testimonies of refugees who fled the country.
At its creation, the Songbun divided society into three social classes, revised to five in the 2000s and subdivided into 51 categories according to the profession of individuals and their degree of loyalty to the regime. Initially, the population is distributed as follows:
- The Core represents 28% of the population: standard class including descendants of heroes of the Korean war as well as peasants.
- The Uncertain make up 45% of the population, including people who have lived in South Korea or China, those with family members in these two countries, merchants and intellectuals. They suffer minor discrimination.
- The Hostiles represent 27% of the population, including all those excluded from the regime: religious, political dissidents, prisoners, and those whose family member has deserted North Korea to go to China or South Korea. Those who collaborated with the Japanese army during the occupation are also affected. This category suffers the most discrimination.
Two new castes will be created afterwards: the Special, which constitute the close circle of the ruler, and the Complexes, intermediate category between the Uncertain and the Hostile, also suffering discrimination from their social class. Only the leader’s family is excluded from the Songbun, but they are no less vulnerable than the rest of the population, as evidenced by the execution of JANG SONGTAEK, KIM JONGUN’s uncle.
Songbun regulates all important aspects of life: education (assigned by social rank), place of residence, work (imposed for the Uncertain or lower classes), access to health (only available for the Core and Special. Songbun is attributed according to the actions and deeds of the parents during the Japanese occupation and the Korean war and is passed on in a hereditary way. Those without a high Songbun cannot live in Pyongyang, the capital, or Kaesong or Rason, border cities of South Korea and China respectively and areas of industrial and economic activity.
Disabled people are also excluded from the major cities to present a “healthy and well-off” population to potential tourists visiting the capital. Residents who want to travel to another city must bring a pass or certificate specifying the length of stay and especially the reason for travel. The result is an explosion of illegal trafficking and the black market to provide the population with medicines reserved for the elite living in Pyongyang.
The Songbun system is hereditary, so people from the lower classes become farmers or miners, and those from the upper classes are employed by the government. However, after the death of KIM ILSUNG in 1994, the system was slightly modified and allowed for a thin social circulation. It is now possible to have your Songbun revised three years after working in the same company, or by order of the local Party.
With high levels of corruption in North Korea—as well as in the south—it is possible to influence its Songbun by paying a large amount of money, which few people have, to inspectors who are tasked with re-evaluating it. Every citizen has his own register at the age of 17, until then attached to the father’s register, available online on the server of the Ministry of Public Security. Nevertheless, the Songbun system is gradually losing its effectiveness as the country opens up under the «May 30 measures» promulgated in 2014 by KIM JONGUN in favour of market economy.
The value of money is gradually increasing, and industry is becoming increasingly self-sufficient. Agriculture starts to grow in 2013 and the country almost manages to do without world food aid to feed its population, estimated today at 25.5 million people. These new measures also allow for higher wages and facilitate mobility within the country.
There is an immediate way to improve your Songbun and enter the Special class. Having a 20 minute conversation with the supreme leader or being photographed by his side automatically leads to higher social status. These very few are the most powerful people in society, even beyond the members of the party. In addition, the various organizations [trade unions of workers, peasants, women or the League of Communist Youth] can have a right to look at the Songbun and reassess the rank of their exemplary members.
As soon as the Songbun came into force, millions of people were classified as Hostiles by the KIM ILSUNG government and sent to the north, mostly in the Hamgyeong region, the poorest and most isolated part of North Korea. Far from the world, they are mostly sent to political prisons called kwanliso [관리소]. There are five main prisons in North Korea, each holding between 80,000 and 120,000 people. Created at the end of the Second World War, they are a reflection of the gulags of the USSR.
The existence of these prisons, denied by the regime, is however attested by testimonies of survivors and satellite images. Some of these prisons are complex, city-sized and have very harsh conditions. Alongside the kwanliso there are prisons for ordinary convicts, called kyohwaso [교화소], of which twenty-seven sites would be listed. Kwanliso, unlike kyohwaso, are not recognized by the state, although they are under the control of the government security department. Despite the fact that the prisoners of kyohwaso are common law detainees, their conditions of detention are no less severe.
Many North Koreans admit they do not know their Songbun exactly. The lower classes are not very aware of this system, which is better mastered by the upper levels of society, who use it as a tool for discrimination. Generally, to determine rank, estimates are used. This is how North Koreans get an idea of their social status by judging the responsibilities and positions that people occupy in their surroundings.
North Korea is a signatory to the 1981 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, whose identical first article reads:
- All peoples have the right to self-determination. Under this right, they freely determine their political status and freely ensure their economic, social and cultural development.
- All peoples may freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources to achieve their ends, without prejudice to the obligations arising from international economic cooperation based on the principle of mutual interest and international law. In no case shall a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.
- The States Parties to this Covenant, including those with responsibility for administering non-self-governing and trusteeship territories, are obliged to facilitate and respect the realization of the right of peoples to self-determination, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
The caste system contradicts the foundation of these two pacts stating that all being Has his freedom of conscience expressed without discrimination of any kind including race, colour, sex, language, religion, politics or any other opinion, nationality, social background, property, his birth or any other status.
Only a lasting settlement between the regional forces seems able to reduce internal tensions and social disparities in North Korea in the long term, leading to the abolition of this unequal system. With KIM JONGUN’s willingness to open up the world, and the easing of tensions with the South, perhaps one day the North will say goodbye to its caste system, one of the only ones still present in the world, with India for example.
If you want to learn more about North Korea, we invite you to discover the Human Rights Committee in North Korea which offers many reports on this subject.
Journalist: Pillet Anaïs
Photos: Sous photos
Sources: KSTATION TV
