A/HRC/25/CRP.1 prohibiting anyone other than women over forty years of age from trading.357 Gender discrimination also takes the form of women being targeted to pay bribes or fines. In a recent study conducted with North Koreans who have left the DPRK, 95 per cent of female traders reported having paid bribes. More than one-third of men reported that criminality and corruption is the best way to make money.358 Regulations in force until 2012 prohibiting women from riding bicycles were reintroduced in January 2013.359 Public safety officials were reportedly imposing fines equivalent to the cost of 4 kilograms of corn on rural women who were riding bicycles under the prior ban, but are now said to be confiscating the bicycle instead.360 Losing a day’s wage due to a fine or the confiscation of a bicycle seriously hinders a woman’s ability to earn an income and feed her family. There is recent evidence that women are beginning to object and resist such impositions. 312. Regulations stipulating that women should wear skirts have also been in place and enforced by the Moral Discipline Corps (groups of citizens mobilized to crack down on what are referred to as morality violations). Recent evidence suggests such restrictions were eased in Pyongyang but may still be in place in less urban areas.361 Furthermore, the Youth League and Women’s Union have tasked themselves with ‘educating’ girls and women on proper attire. • A witness told the Commission: “Women in North Korea are not allowed to wear tight pants and jeans. Women should preferably wear skirts and black shoes according to the socialist lifestyle. Married women can wear jeans. In summer they cannot wear sandals with jewels. I learnt the rules on restrictions for women at the Youth League. If women do not respect the restrictions they can be sent for one month to the dalyundae [labourtraining corps].”362 • Another witness explained why these types of regulations have been created: “Kim Jong-il’s orders are usually turned into law. If there is something that he does not like, the People’s Safety Ministry devises a plan and once they have a plan, Kim Jong Il signed it and it becomes law. In order to follow the instructions, the SSD and the Ministry try to do everything possible in order to carry out the law decree… they do everything. If Kim Jong Il thinks that girls wear skirts that are too short or have too long hair, the inspection group starts to work on the issue (to create a law). There are so many decrees forbidding women from cycling and from wearing pants.”363 313. In the 2005, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women requested that the DPRK define discrimination against women in line with the Convention, and undertake measures and policies to eliminate discrimination against women.364 In response to those requests, in December 2010, the DPRK enacted a Women’s Rights Act, the first legislation specifically aimed at gender issues since the 1948 Gender Equality Law. 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 88 TAP007. Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland, “Gender in Transition”, pp. 51-66. “Women on bicycles banned again”, Daily NK, 14 January 2013. Available from http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=10231. Ibid; Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, “Flowers, Guns and Women on Bikes: Briefing Report on the Situation of Women’s Rights in the DPRK”, 2009, p. 17. These restrictions are said to have been repealed in July 2013, however expert evidence suggests the restrictions are still in force outside of Pyongyang. TLC042. TLC013. CEDAW/C/PRK/CO/1.