North Korea's hereditary caste-based system 'underpins rights abuses': Report

Pyongyang, June 6 (ANI): North Korea's hereditary caste-based system, which ranks citizens on the basis of their family's political background, has long underpinned the country's human rights abuses, according to a new report.

The 'Songbun' system, which classifies North Koreans as 'loyal,' 'wavering,' or 'hostile,' has largely escaped notice, even as UN agencies and rights groups have documented abuses, including vast camps of political prisoners, public executions, and extreme information controls.

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea pointed out that every citizen is assigned a heredity-based class and socio-political rank over which the individual exercises no control but which determines all aspects of his or her life, The Telegraph reports.

The report said that the three classes are further divided into 51 categories by family background or occupation, which determine the precise mix of privileges, punishments or surveillance.

The study tilted 'Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea's Social Classification System,' claimed that the caste system is the root cause of abuses in North Korea.

Songbun, the Korean word for ingredient, 'underlies most of the human rights abuses the regime commits. It is the hidden institution that facilitates widespread and systematic discrimination on a national scale,' the report said.

According to the paper, author of report Robert Collins noted that the 'grim reality of Pyongyang is that this system creates a form of slave labour for a third of North Korea's population of 23 million citizens and loyalty-bound servants out of the remainder'. (ANI)