A/75/388 personnel, women are increasingly being recruited into military service. Women made up 30 per cent of new recruits in 2019 and 40 per cent in 2020. 22 After completing military service, people have the opportunity to become a member of the Workers’ Party, although one escapee said that “being a party member does not bring any real benefit – no salaries, no rations, no privileges”. 25. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 23 and the ILO Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No. 29), compulsory military service is not regarded as forced labour. However, conditions of military service, including in relation to the rights to food and health, are a genuine human rights concern; those rights should be respected during mandatory military service. In 2017, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, during its review of the State’s fifth periodic report, recommended that the Government “take measures to prevent the early militarization of children, particularly boys, and to prevent the recruitment of children under 18 years of age” (CRC/C/PRK/CO/5, para. 53 (b)). 2. State-assigned jobs 26. After completing school or military service, every citizen is assigned to a workplace by the State. Only married women are exempted from State-assigned jobs. Since the State assigns everyone a job and, in theory, provides for all necessities, the concept of a work contract does not exist. While officially there are no private companies in the country, quasi-private subsidiary companies working alongside State entities and sharing profits are in operation. Some companies which generate profits pay salaries to their employees and people pay bribes to be assigned to such workplaces. One female escapee stated that her husband worked at a mineral mining factory which generated foreign currency and regularly paid salaries to its employees; the salaries came from the company’s profits, not from the State. 27. Article 5 of the Socialist Labour Law provides that all working people may choose occupations in accordance with their wishes and talents and will be provided with stable jobs and working conditions. Article 30 stipulates that in assigning workers, various factors (age, gender, physical condition, personal wishes and capability) must be taken into consideration. In practice, family background (songbun),24 personal connections and the ability to bribe State officials are more consequential than personal choice. 25 One escapee said that the children of farmers could sometimes go to university, but were then required to return to their villages as teachers. Another escapee said that, “in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, no matter how hard you try, you cannot reach beyond a certain level”. In 2003, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed its concern that the right to work might not be fully assured in the system of compulsory State -allocated employment, which was contrary to the right of the individual to freely choose his or her career or his or her workplace (E/C.12/1/Add.95, para. 14). __________________ 22 23 24 25 20-13513 Asia Press, “＜Inside N. Korea＞ a look at Korean People’s Army recruitment through secretly obtained documents (part 2): cultivating kamikaze dedication to Kim Jong -un”, Rimjin-Gang (Osaka), 27 July 2020. Available at www.asiapress.org/rimjin-gang/2020/07/military/militaryservice2/. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 8 (3) (c), provides that the term “forced or compulsory labour” shall not include any service of a military character and, in countries where conscientious objection is recognized, any national service required by law of conscientious objectors. Songbun is a classification system based on the political, social and economic background of a person’s direct ancestors, as well as the behaviour of a person and his or her relatives. OHCHR, “The price is rights: the violation of the right to an adequate sta ndard of living in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (May 2019), pp. 20–22. 11/21