Denial of Religious Freedom from Birth reaches to the level of each residential area, and units of the Women’s Union form parallel surveillance structures alongside People’s Units. This is achieved through the former’s duty to conduct regular criticism sessions among its members and report on the political life of its members, as well as through the embedding of Ministry of People’s Security and Ministry of State Security officers. Mun Ki Yeong, a former member of the Women’s Union, explained how self-criticism sessions were used for members of the Union who were accused of religious or belief adherence, and how these meetings became an extrajudicial process. “The Women’s Union has its own instructors, and the head of the County Women’s Union Committee serves as the instructor from time to time depending on the occasion. Other people who direct the lectures include the Deputy Head, Guidance Officers, and professional lecturers. They get different people to give lectures depending on who the occasion calls for. The county-level unit’s head mostly directed meetings, so the deputy would give the lectures most of the time […] There were a few mothers [arrested for Bible possession] […] They also found a couple of people telling fortunes using birth dates and numerology. These people 16 were forced to stand on public ideological criticism stages for the practice of superstition. The Women’s Union hosts such sessions for the people under its jurisdiction. It calls three to four people to the stage and has them criticize one another until they are on the verge of tears. Afterwards, they even make the people in the crowd criticize the people on stage until they vow to never practice superstition again. They even bring over people from other neighborhoods to stand on the stage together.” Alongside the Youth League and the various Workers’ Leagues, the Women’s Union is one of the essential means by which the Workers’ Party of Korea exercises control over those who would not otherwise be covered by the political committee systems. Through the Women’s Union, the Workers’ Party of Korea maintains the capacity to regularly deliver political directives and indoctrination materials into every home with a woman. This mechanism also enables the Workers’ Party to subject women and their households to a structured and systematic form of political surveillance and accountability—including the monitoring and reporting of suspected religious and belief adherents. Organized Persecution: Documenting Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea