Compliance, Enforcement, and the Denial of Religious Freedom
ideological tendencies held by individual North Koreans.
In turn, this means that the Ministry of State Security is
pointedly concerned with the identification of citizens who
adhere to monotheistic beliefs such as Christianity.
Thus, it is an implementation of the ministry’s core mission,
rather than the enforcement of the criminal code, that results
in religious freedom violations. Anything that incites or
encourages a break from national ideological unity and the
Ten Principles is considered a threat to the political system.
One interviewee remarked, “The Ministry of People’s Security
handles ordinary cases, but the rule of the law does not really
apply under Ministry of State Security jurisdiction. The
[Ministry of State Security] facility [I was held in] was used in
processing traitors of the nation.”
According to individuals whose detention by the Ministry
of People’s Security or the Ministry of State Security was
documented, they experienced violations of international
human rights law even before being tried and sentenced.
Respondents with pre-trial detention experience described
similar patterns across facilities and geographies: namely
cases of arbitrary arrest and detention; torture and cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment; an absence of due process,
such as the right to a fair trial; and inhumane conditions,
including inadequate amounts of food.
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Many of these conditions apply to all prisoners, not only to
those detained for their religious beliefs. Nevertheless, it is
all the more relevant. Those incarcerated for their religious
beliefs effectively become subject to increased human rights
denials and violations while receiving the same treatment
meted out to all criminal suspects, which further includes
strict monitoring that precludes private religious activities
such as prayer.
Further, two systems of sentencing exist for those accused
of crimes related to religious beliefs. One involves a public
prosecution process managed by the Ministry of People’s
Security and the Prosecutor’s Office, according to the
criminal code. Documented sentences for crimes related to
religious beliefs handled by the Ministry of People’s Security
and the Prosecutor’s Office, which almost exclusively concern
adherents of Shamanism, range from six months in a forced
labor camp to over three years in a re-education facility.
The other system involves a secret prosecution process
managed by the Ministry of State Security, with typical
sentences ranging from 15 years in a prison camp for an
individual found guilty to life sentences in a prison camp
for up to three generations of the immediate family of an
individual found guilty. The Ministry of State Security
exclusively handles cases relating to adherents of Christianity.
Organized Persecution: Documenting Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea