A/HRC/25/CRP.1 society with entrenched patterns of discrimination, although these are being modified to some extent by the transformative socio-economic changes introduced by market forces and technological developments in the past decade. The Commission finds that state-sponsored discrimination in the DPRK is pervasive but shifting. Discrimination is rooted in the Songbun system, which classifies people on the basis of social class and birth and also includes consideration of political opinion and religion.428 Songbun intersects with gender based discrimination, which is equally pervasive. Discrimination is also practised on the basis of disability although there are signs that the state may have begun to address this particular issue. 347. The state sponsors and implements a system of official discrimination based on social class, deriving from perceived political loyalty and family background as manifest in the Songbun system. The concept of songbun was originally conceived as a means to reengineer the fabric of society, so as to replace the pre-1945 traditional elites with new “revolutionary” elites loyal to the leadership and the new state. In this regard, the DPRK remodeled pre-existing hierarchies in Korean society that were deeply rooted for centuries.429 348. The Songbun system used to be the most important determining factor in an individual’s chances of livelihood, access to education and other services including housing and the opportunity to live in favorable locations, especially the capital Pyongyang. This traditional discrimination under the Songbun system has been recently complicated by increasing marketization in the DPRK and the influence of money on people’s ability to better access their economic, social and cultural rights. Money and heightened levels of corruption increasingly allow newly emerging business elites and others able to obtain resources to circumvent state-sponsored discrimination. Moreover, new information technologies, including mobile phones, help to facilitate the operation of the market system and the exchange of knowledge and information. However, whether an individual has the necessary access to make money in the most lucrative sectors of commerce is to some degree determined by songbun. At the same time, significant segments of the population that have neither the resources nor favorable songbun find themselves increasingly marginalized and subject to further patterns of discrimination, as basic public services have collapsed or now require payment. 349. Discrimination based on songbun continues to articulate itself today through the stark differences in living conditions between larger cities, in particular the capital Pyongyang, where the elites of the highest songbun are concentrated, and the remote provinces, to which people of low songbun were historically assigned. Discrimination remains a major means for the leadership to maintain control against perceived threats, both internal and external. 350. Early reforms aimed at ensuring formal legal equality have not resulted in gender equality. Discrimination against women remains pervasive in all aspects of society. Arguably, it is increasing as the male-dominated state preys on both the economically advancing women and marginalized women. Many women, driven by survival during the famine in the 1990s began operating private markets. However, the state imposed many restrictions on the female-dominated market, including prohibiting anyone other than women over forty years of age from trading. Gender discrimination also takes the form of 428 429 98 discriminated on the basis of his/her race, sex, language, religion, education, occupation and position and property, and all citizens exercise equal rights in all fields of the state and public activities” (A/HRC/WG.6/6/PRK/1, para. 32). Discrimination on the basis of religion is addressed in section IV.A. See section III.