COMPLIANCE, ENFORCEMENT, AND THE DENIAL OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM In the North Korean civilian sphere, one or more of the following law enforcement institutions may take part in the arrest of an individual: Prosecutor’s Office, Border Security Command, Ministry of People’s Security, and Ministry of State Security. In the military sphere, Military Security Command performs the functions of the Ministry of State Security. The Border Security Command is responsible for patrolling the northern border region. Guards may search and arrest individuals on the spot if there is a suspicion of their having crossed, or intending to cross, the border without authorization. As far as cases related to religious freedom violations are concerned, these guards do not play a specialized role but have been documented as arresting and subjecting those who are caught in possession of Bibles to torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. If there is a need for further investigation and processing of an individual after an arrest, suspects are handed over to other enforcement authorities by Border Security Command. Within law enforcement, the Ministry of People’s Security and Ministry of State Security are the main entities implicated in religious freedom violations. The Ministry of People’s Security is a general police force. It may arrest individuals if they are found in the process of committing a crime, or following a warrant authorized by the Prosecutor’s Office. By contrast, the Ministry of State Security is a secret police force. It maintains its own prosecution department, court system, and penal facilities. The Ministry of People’s Security is analogous to a national police force in other nations, but it serves a party-political function due to it being subject to Workers’ Party of Korea control and its mission of upholding the political system. The Ministry of People’s Security has had several changes of name, including in recent years. For example, it was renamed the Department of People’s Security in 2010 as part of an effort to place it alongside two other major security organs: the Department of People’s Armed Forces and the Department of State Security. It was renamed again in 2016 as the Ministry of People’s Security and placed under the State Affairs Commission. Finally, in May 2020, it was renamed the Ministry of Social Security. To avoid confusion, this report continues to refer to it as the Ministry of People’s Security, which is conventionally the name most used. The Ministry of People’s Security is the main entity that conducts law enforcement activities according to the criminal code. Among its articles there is no explicit reference to religion, although there are items related to damaging the socialist order and bringing foreign influence into North Korea, as cited earlier in this report. Nonetheless, one item directly relevant to this ministry’s enforcement activities falls under the euphemistic term ‘superstitious activities.’ This term encompasses religious and belief practices, and commonly refers to Shamanism. Specifically, it dictates that any “person who repeatedly engages in superstitious activities in exchange for money or goods shall be punished by short-term labor for less than one year. In cases where the foregoing act is a grave offense, he or she shall be punished by reform through labor for less than three years.” The Ministry of State Security became independent from the Ministry of People’s Security in 1973 following an order by Kim Il Sung that called for separating political order operations from public order operations. Its official mission is to protect the Kim family and the political system by uncovering hostile forces engaged in espionage, anti-party, or anti-revolutionary activities. To carry out its operations effectively, the Ministry of State Security maintains branches throughout the nation, covering administrative regions directly parallel to the ministry, as well as among resident foreigners and overseas postings of North Korean diplomats and dispatched workers. As an intelligence agency, it carries out many of its operations in secret. Ministry of State Security officers do not wear a uniform in public, and individuals released from Ministry of State Security custody are made to stamp their fingerprints on a form stating that, upon release, they will not speak about their experience. The Ministry of State Security proactively gathers information on potential threats against the political system with a focus on those of a domestic origin, particularly in the form of Organized Persecution: Documenting Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea 13