North Korea has enslaved political prisoners, including children, in the production of coal to help boost exports and earn foreign currency as part of a system directly linked to its nuclear and missile programs, said a human rights group based in South Korea.
The North Korean Citizens’ Alliance for Human Rights (NKHR), based in Seoul, released a study that examines an intricate connection between North Korea’s exploitation of its citizens, the production of goods for export and its programs of weapons.
The report, entitled Blood Coal Export from North Korea, says that Pyongyang has operated a “fraudulent pyramid-like” scheme to force people detained in prison camps to produce quotas for coal and other goods for export.
Their findings offer a deeper insight into how the fields contribute to North Korea’s obscure coal trading network, after the United Nations banned its commodity exports to stifle funding for Pyongyang’s ballistic and nuclear missile programs, and after human rights agencies reported serious violations of rights in the camps.
There was no immediate reaction from the North Korean diplomatic mission in Geneva to a request for comment.
North Korea violated UN sanctions to earn nearly $ 200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent UN monitors released in early 2018.
The NKHR report cites interviews with ex-prisoners who have fled to the South and other deserters with knowledge of the negotiations, along with other sources, such as satellite images and data from the South Korean and American governments.
The UN estimates that up to 200,000 people are being held in a vast network of gulags administered by the secret police, many of whom are located near mining sites. A 2014 report by the UN commission of inquiry said that prisoners faced torture, rape, forced labor, hunger and other inhumane treatment.
In December, the US imposed new sanctions, putting six blacklisted companies, including several based in China, and four ships accused of illicit North Korean coal exports.
The NKHR report states: “Quotas for export products are met through the slave labor of men, women and children in detention camps owned and operated by the secret police.”
An example is camp 18, in the central mining county of Bukchang. Former prisoners interviewed by the NKHR reported that at least 8 million tons of coal were produced there in 2016.
The secret police, formally known as the Ministry of State Security, handles shipments of goods exported by Bureau 39, a secret veiled fund for the family of leader Kim Jong-un, with links to the production of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, he said. the report adds.
Joanna Hosaniak, deputy director general of the NKHR, said the investigation aimed to highlight the key role of the “state-sponsored slavery system” in strengthening Kim’s political and financial power and his nuclear programs, as Joe Biden analyzes. o US American policy.