A/HRC/25/CRP.1 not to be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter one’s own country. As DPRK nationals are assigned their employment by the state which therefore dictates where they reside, the Commission also considered article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which provides for the right to work. This includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his or her living by work which he or she freely chooses or accepts. 356. The Commission further looked at the General Comments of the Human Rights Committee to article 12 of ICCPR especially in respect of permissible legal restrictions on these rights necessary to protect national security, public order or morals or the rights and freedoms of others and consistent with the other rights recognized by ICCPR. The Commission also took into account article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which provides for the right of the child with his or her parents to leave any country, including their own, and to enter their own country. 1. Freedom of movement and residence in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 357. The Commission finds that the authorities in the DPRK severely restrict its citizens’ (as well as foreigners’) right to freedom of movement and residence within the country. This policy is designed to limit information flows and to uphold discrepancies in living conditions that favour elites in Pyongyang and discriminate against people of low songbun who are concentrated, as a consequence, in more remote provinces. (a) State-assigned place of residence and employment 358. According to the DPRK’s submission to the Human Rights Committee, while citizens and foreigners are free to choose and move their residence, they are required “to go through due legal procedures when they want to move residence”.433 These procedures are laid out in the Law on Registration of Citizens for DPRK nationals and Chapter 4 (Stay, Residence and Tour of Foreigners) of the Immigration Law for foreigners. 359. Article 70 of the DPRK Constitution provides for the right of the people to choose their employment according to their desire and capability. In practice, citizens are assigned their place of residence largely based on where they are assigned to work by the state. The Workers’ Party of Korea has full and exclusive control over all job assignments for the people. People are assigned their jobs in groups to work in factories, mines and construction facilities as the Party deems necessary.434 360. By law, people are also not allowed to move from their assigned residence to another residence without government permission. Article 149 of the Criminal Code provides that anyone who hands over, receives or lends a dwelling place owned by the state for money or goods shall be punished by short-term labour for less than two years.435 Since all immovable property is state-owned, this provision effectively criminalizes any unauthorized move. According to testimony received by the Commission, corrupt officials are easily bribed to look the other way when people illegally sell their residency rights to another person. • One witness informed the Commission that no one is free to choose where they live as the Party allocates where they may live. His parents’ generation were allocated houses and he personally never saw anyone moving homes. However, as the market 433 434 435 100 CCPR/C/PRK/2000/2, para. 77. KINU, White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea (2013), pp. 355-356. 2009 Criminal Code of the DPRK as translated by Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.