A/HRC/25/CRP.1 or anywhere else outside the citizen’s home province is a disproportional measure that violates article 12 (1) of the ICCPR.471 2. Right to leave one’s own country 380. The Commission finds that DPRK citizens are subject to restrictions on foreign travel that in practice amount to a virtual travel ban on ordinary citizens, which is enforced through extreme violence and harsh punishment. This is likely intended to ensure as little exposure to knowledge which contradicts information that is propagated through statecontrolled media and other means of indoctrination and information control. (a) Total travel ban 381. According to the DPRK’s immigration law, overseas travel is possible with the issuance of a passport or a border area travel permit.472 By law, citizens are allowed to visit relatives in China but the personal information of such relatives including contact details are to be documented in the travellers’ records. An invitation from the Chinese relatives must also be obtained in applying for a passport. A river-crossing pass may be issued to a DPRK resident in the border region who wants to visit China for a short trip. For those engaged in cross-border trade, a 24- or 48-hour pass can theoretically be issued immediately upon application, although this may not happen in reality.473 382. In practice, travelling abroad is a privilege reserved for those with good class or ideology.474 Witnesses provided information to the Commission that people who are permitted to leave the country for official business are thoroughly examined and that they must have a spotless background. The responsible officer may even get into trouble for approving an application for travelling abroad if the person travelling later “defects”. According to witness testimonies, if an applicant was born abroad, the responsible officer considering the application would not trust that applicant to not defect (having been exposed to the outside world and/or capitalist ways) and would therefore reject the application.475 A failure to return from authorized travel abroad may also result in serious consequences for family members of the “defector” remaining in the DPRK.476 383. The Commission finds that ordinary DPRK citizens usually have no other choice than to illegally cross the border with China in order to realize their human right to leave their own country under article 12 (2) of the ICCPR. This is considered a serious offence. Article 233 of the Criminal Code considers any illegal crossing of the border an offence subject to less than two years of short-term labour, or, in grave cases, up to five years of reform through labour.477 In practice, those who illegally cross the border are regularly considered to have committed “treason against the Fatherland by defection” under article 62 of the Criminal Code. This crime is punishable by a minimum of five years of “reform through labour”. Illegal border crossers are alternatively charged under another of the vaguely defined and political “anti-state or anti-people crimes”.478 The MPS reportedly 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 See also CCPR/CO/72/PRK, para. 19 where the Human Rights Committee concludes that the requirement of a traveller’s permit for domestic travel within the country raises serious questions visà-vis ICCPR, article 12 (1). DPRK Immigration Law 1996 as amended in 1999 and 2012, articles 9-12. KINU, White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea (2013), pp. 246-247. NHRCK, Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, afternoon. TAP002, TSH052. TJH022. See Criminal Code, article 233. Note also article 234 which provides for punishment to those working in the border administration who help illegal border crossers. See section III.E for further on this. 107