A/HRC/25/CRP.1 International453 and provided to the Commission show these children roaming the streets. Many of those portrayed appear to be no older than four or five years of age. 371. In light of the starvation and daily struggle for survival which they endure, these street children are euphemistically referred to as Kotjebi – flower-swallows. Because of the restrictions on residence, their presence is not tolerated and they constantly have to evade capture by the security agencies. Those captured are brought back to their home counties where they are forcibly institutionalized in poorly supplied holding centres or just left to survive by themselves. A former official who worked in a relevant government department estimated that there could be hundreds of thousands of street children in Pyongyang alone.454 • Mr Kim Hyuk, who became a street child at age seven after the death of his mother, testified about his life before the Commission: “We were sleeping at night at the Chongjin train station. We were picking up food around the train station, and, when we were begging, people were more than willing to give us food. So, when there are no people around the train station, in the Chongjin city, there are houses for the officials. And if you go around the official’s housing or apartments, they have food that they have thrown away so those kind[s] of food we could eat.”455 In 1997, at the height of mass starvation, a special police unit was assigned to apprehend such children. Those who did not have parents were forced to go to closed shelters that were not able to provide them with food: “The shelters had no food to give. So many children starved to death, even at these shelters. And even the police said if you go to the shelters, the children die, but if they were allowed to be street children, they would survive.”456 372. out. Police actions to round up and forcibly transfer street children are still being carried • A former official recalled that SSD and MPS were assigned by Kim Jong-un in August 2010 to get rid of street children and unregistered citizens in Pyongyang. The goal was to make the capital city neat and tidy for the Central Committee Congress to be held in September 2010. To carry out the operation, additional SSD and MPS officials were called in from the provinces to carry out the operation. An extremely large number of street children were apprehended and sent to “rehabilitation homes” for street children in their provinces of origin. Adults were sent to labour training camps, or, in some cases, ordinary prison camps (kyohwaso).457 • One witness was arrested and beaten by MPS agents when trying to catch a train to Pyongyang. Along with other children, she was sent to a children’s shelter. When they first arrived, they were told to stand on a chair, and were beaten with a thick leather belt. The children had to live in dark basement rooms and use a plastic bucket as a toilet. They were fed a small amount of salty soup with a little bit of radish and flour, two or three times a day. She remembers always being hungry. Her 453 454 455 456 457 104 ASIAPRESS started in Tokyo in 1987 as an independent network of journalists in Asia. In 2007 ASIAPRESS began publishing a magazine entitled “Rimjin-gang: News from Inside North Korea” in Korean and Japanese. (After the 4th issue of the Korean edition was released in April 2009, the Seoul staff began publishing on its own and is no longer connected with ASIAPRESS.) TAP024. Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, morning (00:26:16). Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, morning (00:31:42). TJH004.