A/HRC/25/CRP.1 universal human rights for all peoples is the risk that grave violations take place unknown, in secret, and are not recorded and analysed so that future generations can learn from, and resolve to avoid, shocking departures from the universal values recognized in international law. This report describes many such shocking departures. III. Historical and political context to human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 85. The current human rights situation in the DPRK has been shaped by the historical experiences of the Korean people. Confucian social structures and the oppression suffered during the Japanese colonial occupation have informed the political structures and attitudes prevailing in the DPRK today. The imposed division of the Korean peninsula, the massive destruction that occurred during the Korean War and the impact of the Cold War have engendered an isolationist mind-set and a deep aversion to outside powers. The particular nature and the overall scale of human rights violations in the DPRK can be better understood through an appreciation of the development of the system of government in the DPRK. The DPRK is a single-party state dominated by a family dynasty which controls the party, the state and the military. Rigid ideological tenets loosely based on socialist MarxistLeninist theory and an extensive security apparatus sustain this regime. 86. Any description of history and political structures inevitably reflects the sources and viewpoints of those who record it. The Commission endeavoured at different stages to engage with the DPRK in order to receive directly its perspective, including on historical events. In the absence of any such engagement, the Commission has nonetheless sought to effect a balanced approach and to use the most reliable sources at its disposal to inform its understanding of the historical and political context to the human rights violations in the DPRK. A. Pre-colonial history 87. The DPRK is often referred to as the “Hermit Kingdom” suggesting that the insularity of the North has been characteristic since its beginnings. The largely self-imposed relative isolation of the DPRK today is not, however, an extension of the earlier experiences of pre-modern Korea. It is believed that humans inhabited the Korean peninsula since Neolithic times, with the eventual emergence of settled communities based on agricultural production that led to enough surplus for horses, weapons and armies to sustain centuries of legends of epic battles among various indigenous kingdoms and against outside forces from modern-day China, Japan and Mongolia. 88. Over the course of pre-modern history, Korea established a class-based system whereby a small aristocratic elite, combining elements of a landed gentry and scholarofficials, eventually to be known as the yangban, ruled over peasants and lower classes that included merchants and labourers. Slavery and indentured servitude were also practised. This class-based system is sometimes characterized as feudal and perhaps more accurately as agrarian-bureaucratic. In theory, this system conferred elite status on men who had passed a rigorous civil service exam and were awarded high-level bureaucratic positions, somewhat analogous to the mandarin system in China. Over time, the yangban became, in practice, a hereditary institution through the family registry system that passed on elite status through the generations, with its self-perpetuating privileges including the right to participate in local councils. 89. The yangban class system speaks to the deep-rooted Confucian underpinnings of Korean society. Confucianism is essentially an ethical and philosophical system that 19