Organizational Structure of Religious Freedom Violations Kim Jin Hyeon, a former resident of Hyesan, experienced the denial of religious freedom when Workers’ Party of Korea officials required his People’s Unit to attend lectures every Thursday. “The lectures were about Kim Jong Un and how he visited such and such a location […] As people can only obey his ideology after learning about him, the lectures primarily featured his work […] They told us not to practice superstition and what might happen if we did, because Juche is the only belief that we need.” In organizational units, assigned security officers recruit informants from within the unit and work with the heads of the units. In residential units, the heads of the units are usually picked from among the most loyal in the unit to deliver Workers’ Party of Korea instructions and monitor adherence. Incidents with a political dimension fall under the remit of the Ministry of State Security officer, and those to do with disturbance of social order fall under the remit of the Ministry of People’s Security officer. Similarly, Kim Chil Seok, a former correctional officer, said: “We constantly received Workers’ Party of Korea directives [prohibiting the practice of superstitious activities] from above. They sent those down as the orders and guidelines of Kim Jong Un. We got many of those in 2018 and 2019, about once a month. Previously we got the same content, but only about twice a year […] Whenever we had such lectures, the political director presented them. Everyone from the [Ministry of People’s Security] branch who could attend was present. There were about 200 people at the most, and 70 to 80 people at the least. […] We met every morning at 08:00 for 20 to 30 minutes, except on Sundays.” Recalling a People’s Unit lecture in Hyesan, Ji So Yun noted, “They told us that the two volumes of the Bible [that had been discovered] were likely not the only copies, and they told us to report any possessors and to turn in any copy of Bibles that we found to law enforcement. […] Ministry of State Security guidance officers assigned to individual neighborhoods must shoulder the consequences of the slightest political offenses taking place under their jurisdiction […] We thought of people who possessed Bibles as spies, as the state would sternly warn us on how Bible possession was a political offense.” Organizational units in North Korea also function as nexus points for Workers’ Party of Korea enforcement, through the formal assignment of Ministry of People’s Security and Ministry of State Security officers to each unit. They conduct surveillance and deliver Workers’ Party of Korea-authorized lectures. Yeo Min Ji, a former college student in North Hamgyong Province, recalled: “Once a quarter or a month, officers from the Ministry of People’s Security and Ministry of State Security came over to supervise the colleges. They have designated officials who oversee college related matters.” Another interviewee noted, “I lived in a small county, so there were only a few institutions. There were only the local Ministry of People’s Security and Ministry of State Security officers. […] Each one of these officials was in charge of individual People’s Units.” Lee Se Ra, a former resident of Hyesan, attended lectures through a compulsory Women’s Union affiliation. She recounted: “Those who graduated from school had to attend [these] lectures calling for the eradication of superstitions […] The lecturers lumped together into one category escaping into China, narcotics abuse, and the practice of religion—to disparage them all. The lectures were held weekly. Lectures on the prohibition of religion probably took place once every month or two.” 10 Another interviewee from Hyesan, Kim Hye Ri, told investigators, “Although the People’s Unit head usually gives the lecture, the Ministry of People’s Security guidance officer shows up carrying a directive to give the lecture with the head whenever things were serious. […] When Ministry of People’s Security officials came down to the People’s Unit meetings to give lectures, they told us about how we should be aware that we can get sentenced to re-education based on criminal law if we are recurrent superstition practice offenders.” In sum, the organizational structures imposed by the North Korean government are designed to prevent knowledge of the right to religious freedom as ever existing, and to identify and purge any discovery of religious adherence at its source. To illustrate this extreme level of control over the lives of every North Korean citizen, we sourced materials internally disseminated to core party workers by the Workers’ Party of Korea Organization and Guidance Department and Propaganda and Agitation Department on January 22, 2018 (excerpt in Figure 3). The material was authorized by Kim Jong Un on January 19, 2018 and explains a “political operational plan for party organizational units to carry out an intense extermination campaign to root out un‑socialist phenomena throughout the entire party, nation, and populace.” Organized Persecution: Documenting Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea