A/HRC/25/CRP.1 while those of families whose members included an inmate of a political prison camp (kwanliso) were placed in a black folder.297 280. Songbun appears also to be an important factor when considering the punishment for a criminal offense. As one witness explained, when someone with higher songbun commits the same crime as someone with lower songbun, the one with the higher songbun will get the lighter punishment. When someone is sent to a detention centre by a security agency, what will be assessed first is the person’s family tree and background. If the individual comes from the core class (i.e. has higher songbun), then, regardless of the crime, the individual will be treated relatively well on the assumption that the individual had no intention of betraying the country. If the individual comes from a lower songbun, then the person is assumed to be “built” to do bad things, and will receive a harsher punishment.298 • Ms Kwon Young-hee told the story of her brother who was arrested in China and forcibly repatriated to the DPRK during the mourning period for Kim Il-sung in 1994. Instead of being treated as an “economic” offender for going to China illegally, he was charged as a political prisoner. “Just because our parents were from the South, if we do commit a crime or commit an offence, we always get heavier punishments. I think that was one of the most unfair things and that is why one of my brothers cannot be found, one of my brothers was sent to the prison.”299 281. It is difficult to verify the exact proportions of different songbun classes today and to know how much these have changed over time. Figures from 2009 suggest the core class to be about 28 per cent of the population, while the basic class constitutes 45 per cent, and the complex (wavering and hostile) class constitutes the remaining 27 per cent.300 Within the core class, there is a ruling elite. This group is sometimes referred to as the revolutionary class, as it is comprised of the extended family of Kim Il-sung and a small number of other families who usually have a forebear of the highest level songbun. The ruling elite includes the families of Political Bureau members and secretaries of the Workers’ Party of Korea, members of the Central People’s Committee, the State Administration Council, the Central Military Commission and the National Defense Commission.301 They are directly involved in the preparation of major policy decisions and participate in the inner circle of policymaking. 282. The broader elite are those individuals with core class songbun302 who continue to dominate the central and local administrative structures, the broader corps of officers in the military and the security agencies, and other managerial positions. Both the ruling and broader elite are able to use their official powers, privileges to move freely around the country, access to state resources and social connections to seize opportunities arising from the DPRK’s increasing marketization. 297 298 299 300 301 302 78 TCC014. TAP011. Seoul Public Hearing, 24 August 2013, morning (02:05:00). Other testimonies in section IV.A. The three broad areas appear to have shifted over time to where the wavering and hostile classes together have been condensed into a “complex” category and the middle category is characterized as the “basic” category. These figure from the Korea Institute for Nationa Unification, An Overview of North Korea (2009), p. 330. “Because overlapping membership is common in public office, top-ranking office holders number less than 100”: Federal Research Division Library of Congress, Robert L. Worden ed., North Korea: A Country Study (2009), p. 211. Twenty-eight per cent of 23.3 million total population amounts to about 6.5 million.