A/HRC/25/CRP.1 allowed to write their ideas and just by saying that, he was sent to Yodok, Camp No. 15...”229 • Ms Jeong Jin-hwa during the same session of the Seoul Public Hearing added: “There are lots of people who were taken like that, especially in the media. If you are in the media in North Korea, if you slip, it becomes a political issue. And as Mr. Jang said, we saw a lot of people taken away to the kwanliso, the political camps. So some people, the general criminals go to the correctional camps, but these writers, the people in the media, if they slip just once, they can disappear overnight and their family can be gone overnight, and sometimes, the three generations are wiped [out]. So you see, some people are told that, people think that they deserve it because they turned their backs on the regime. This is what the people think.”230 • One witness recalled memorizing children’s songs such as “Revolutionary Army Game”, as part of the nation’s required music curriculum. Only classical music pieces composed before 1899 could be played, and works by the Russian composer Rachmaninoff for example were off limits because he had migrated to the USA. The purpose of music in the DPRK was to inspire adoration of the leader and the belief that socialism will triumph. Accordingly, only pieces that convey admiration for the Kim family and instil loyalty towards the nation and the Party are allowed. Popular music of the West and ROK is totally banned. A person responsible would be punished if caught for playing music of this genre.231 225. Witnesses interviewed by the Commission, while they did not understand the basis for the law, knew that expressing their opinion freely was not acceptable in the DPRK. When asked about why no one would protest against the harsh living conditions and strict rules the population in the DPRK was subjected to, witnesses indicated that such protest was unimaginable and no one would dare to protest. As explained by Mr Kim Jong-su, “protest is equivalent to death”.232 226. In its submission to the Human Rights Committee, the DPRK highlighted that its citizens are guaranteed the right to freedom of opinion and expression under the Constitution and the Press Law. This right is not without qualification however; “such expression of one’s thought is forbidden as encouraging others to attempt to overthrow, disrupt or undermine the state, disclosing state secrets to do serious harm to the state security and the healthy public order, insulting another or impairing his or her honour”.233 227. In responding to a question posed by a member of the Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights on how the Government reconciled the difference between individual rights and collective rights under the Covenant, one DPRK representative said, Individual and collective rights were intertwined: what was good for the individual was good for the group and vice-versa. Since individuals lived in society, there should be harmony between individual and collective needs. If an individual expressed an opinion that was contrary to that of the group, the opinion would be taken into consideration, but efforts would also be made to persuade the individual 229 230 231 232 233 Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, afternoon (01:02:20). Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, afternoon (01:03:28). TLC035. London Public Hearing, 23 October 2013, session 1 (01:29:45). CCPR/C/PRK/2000/2, paras. 117-118. 63