Nonjudicial Punishments of Political Offenses in North Korea—With a Focus on Kwanriso†

Abstract

Torture, extrajudicial killings and disappearances, suppression of the freedom of expression and association, and other breaches of fundamental human rights are widespread and systematic in North Korea. The United Nations Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2013, and the Commission’s report confirmed that widespread and grave violations of human rights are being committed in the country. As an effort to analyze the origins of human rights violations in North Korea, this Article examines the country’s penal system by cross-referencing North Korean statutes and defectors’ testimonies. By comparing what the law stipulates with how the procedure is actually practiced, this Article attempts to illustrate how the North Korean penal law system is especially reliant on nonjudicial punishment of political offenses through kwanriso camps, which admit a great number of political offenders and their families without going through the regular judicial process.