A/HRC/25/CRP.1 about this order and the creation of a central inspection group composed of the Security State Department (SSD), Ministry of People’s Security (MPS), Korean People’s Army (KPA) and the prosecution office. As a result of the operation, 700 individuals were reported to have been arrested and sent away to ordinary prison camps (kyohwaso) with 400 households expelled from Pyongyang.449 369. In the past, the authorities pursued a strict practice of prohibiting families who had a child or adult member with a mental or serious physical disability from residing in Pyongyang. The policy was apparently motivated by a desire to maintain the image of a clean capital city whose population corresponded to the ideal of a pure Korean race. • Mr Lee Jae-geun related how Kim Il-sung referred to Pyongyang as the capital of revolution and that there would not be anyone with disabilities, nor anyone who was against the regime, living there. According to Mr Lee, if someone was born with a disability, or became a person with a disability, that person and their family would be sent away from Pyongyang to the countryside.450 • Mr Son Jung-hun explained that only people with good songbun could reside in Pyongyang. He gave an example where if a man from Pyongyang formed a relationship with a woman from outside the capital, he would not be able to bring her back to Pyongyang if she did not have a good songbun. Instead, he would have to live in the woman’s local region if he wanted to marry her. Families with a member who had a disability would also have to leave Pyongyang, but since they had not committed a crime and had good songbun, they would be merely relocated to the periphery of the city. Mr Son believed the reason for persons with a disability and their families having to move was because Pyongyang must be presented as a “sacred place” to foreign visitors. As such, weak and sick people could not be there, lest this might tarnish the image of Pyongyang. Mr Son had a friend whose father was a Central Committee member. However, because his child was “not of normal height”, Mr Son’s friend and his family had to move away from Pyongyang.451 • One witness that the Commission met was responsible for implementing the orders to transfer people expelled from Pyongyang. She received the orders and instructions from the government, and issued certificates for the move from Pyongyang City to other districts of Pyongyang. She said that if a citizen’s father or mother is not loyal enough, then that individual is not eligible to live in the capital. That person must be sent to the local region, and so that person must have a moving card certified. She also said that persons with disabilities and their families are simply not allowed to live in Pyongyang.452 (ii) Situation of street children 370. The mass starvation and deaths resulting from the food crisis and the breakdown of early childcare, education and other public services produced an entire generation of children who were orphaned, abandoned or for other reasons no longer under the care of their parents. These children often ended up clandestinely migrating to Pyongyang and other cities. Video footage secretly filmed by collaborators of Rimjin-gang Asia Press 449 450 451 452 TGC004. See section IV.E on ordinary prison camps. Seoul Public Hearing, 23 August 2013, morning. For more on banishment of families with children with disabilities, see section IV.B. TAP011. TAP007. 103