A/HRC/25/CRP.1 songbun, since the officer would get into trouble if the person failed to return from his or her visit overseas.326 • A witness who came from a family of “returnees” said that he and his family were considered to be spies and untrustworthy. No one in his family could aspire to highranking positions, no matter how hard they worked. He noted that punishments for “returnees” committing crimes were also disproportionate to those of regular DPRK citizens. While they were forced to bribe officials for everything, very high ranking officials would not accept bribes from them because they were “returnees”.327 295. Former residents of Japan were for the most part ineligible for mid- or high-level positions within the Party or the military.328 According to experts and testimony received by the Commission, Koreans from Japan were more at risk of being sent to political prison camps.329 • Ms Chiba explained at the Tokyo Public Hearing: “In 1970s, speaking in Japanese, singing in Japanese, using Japanese language was also target of punishment, and Mr Yamada talked about Magujabi period, so in ’70s and ’80s many people did not commit any crime per se, but without any reason many people disappeared. This was something that was quite ordinary that happened in North Korea.”330 • Another “returnee” told the Commission that, in 1976, his father was sent to a political prison without any warning. The witness continued seeking answers from the Social Safety Agency and SSD about the fate of his father. After several weeks, an officer from the SSD brought his father’s file to their house, showing him the charges. His father had apparently defamed Kim Il-sung, when he had said, “In Japan, trains travel at 200 km per hour, here they only go 40 km per hour. It is said that the DPRK will grow beyond Japan, but I doubt it.” The witness said that he argued with the officer, saying that the constitution guaranteed freedom of speech, but the officer said freedom of speech did not extend to defamation of the regime. The witness believes his father was sent to Political Prison Camp No. 22. A childhood friend who was also sent to Camp No. 22 reported that his father died in the kwanliso in 1978. The family did not receive any notification of his death.331 296. When remittances from Japan tapered off in the 1990s, the privileges of Japanese “returnees” also ended. 297. Other DPRK citizens who had been born in the South, or whose parents were born in the South, were also subject to discrimination.332 This was also the case for people whose family had originated in China, even if ethnically Korean. • For example, Ms Jo Jinhye testified at the Washington Public Hearing that “my grandfather actually got married in China and there my dad was born. And they did not come down to North Korea until my dad was eleven years old. So I do not think 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 TAP002. TSH038. Andrei Lankov, “Minorities in North Korea, part 1: Japanese-Koreans”, NK News, 6 August 2013. TJH026. Tokyo Public Hearing, 30 August 2013, morning (01:59:57). TSH036. TAP012 explained that he and his family were sent to a political prison camp due to his late father's low songbun, associated with being politically unreliable. However, a family member who had married into the witness's family had also ended up in the same camp because he had been born in South Korea despite having joined the North Korean military. 83