North Korea’s Kim Regime: A Contemporary Apartheid

By Damian Reddy, HRNK Research Intern
Edited by Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Sophia Hapin, HRNK Research Intern

May 5, 2021

In a public statement to the Human Rights Council in March 2014, the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Michael Kirby, asserted that the North Korean government had established a system of apartheid.[1] This was further emphasized in 2015 in Seoul, South Korea, by former United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who expressed her thoughts on the North Korean government by likening it to South Africa’s discriminatory apartheid regime. She further stressed that North Korea’s songbun caste system is, in fact, a new form of apartheid.[2] North Korea’s government is actively practicing apartheid, a crime against humanity that is condemned by international law. The main question is whether it is possible to extend the meaning and legal definition of apartheid to be inclusive of a system that is perpetrating human rights violations, but not only in the strict sense of racial segregation as seen in South Africa.

The term “apartheid” is the Afrikaans word for apartness or separateness and was adopted and described by South Africa’s former National Party as “segregated development.”[3] It was popularized by South Africa as being a formal and systematic institution of racial segregation. The matter of racial segregation and discrimination was not uncommon to South Africa and was filtered through years of colonialism. However, by the 1950s, the government in power enacted the Population Registration Act that provided the framework for apartheid.[4] Further laws were enacted to entrench the government’s policy of segregated development, i.e., land laws, pass laws, separate amenities laws, education and health laws, employment laws, etc. These laws only served to institutionalize segregation and discrimination, and create a divide between the white minority and the non-white majority, especially the African blacks.[5]  Hendrick Verwoed, former Prime Minister and leader of the National Party, ensured the segregation of whites and non-whites with the promulgation of the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 that resulted in the separation of black people from society and inhibited any possible socio-economic progress.[6] It is reported that between 1961 and 1994, approximately 3.5 million black people were forcibly removed from their homelands to designated areas known as the Bantustans—inferior spaces.[7]   The result was that black people, in particular, were oppressed politically, economically, and socially.

Fast forward to modern-day South Africa and the story has a relatively happy ending with the abolishment of apartheid and the welcoming of a new democratic dispensation in 1994 after much internal pressure and external intervention. Internally, South Africa experienced a great amount of unrest and resistance from the grassroots level. In addition to resistance by banned political parties, students in schools and universities began protesting, especially against the compulsory Afrikaans medium of learning. By the late 1980s, strikes, boycotts, and armed resistance became the order of the day against the apartheid regime.[8] South Africa also received immense international criticism and condemnation. The United Nations decided on penal measures against South Africa. International sanctions included the following: financial, trade, industry, sports, and media penalties. Furthermore, the United States and the United Kingdom imposed restrictions on South Africa. The United States, for example, passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 that, inter alia, forcibly pulled out all American companies from South Africa. These external pressures had a massive negative impact on South Africa and its economy. In effect, South Africa was ostracized, resulting in the initial stages of negotiations to lead towards change.[9]

However, the story for North Korea is quite different despite the similarities between South Africa’s apartheid regime and North Korea’s Kim regime remaining strikingly uncanny. Both systems demonstrate unjust control over its people, with a strict class system to ensure that there is a form of segregated development. One major difference is the basis for segregation: South Africa’s apartheid was based on racial discrimination, whereas North Korea’s discriminatory system is largely based on political ideology. Robert Collins, in his report on the parallels between the apartheid and songbun systems, informs of the discrimination that is practiced under songbun and argues that it includes characteristics of racism emanating from ideology.[10] In North Korea, ideology propagates that the Korean race is superior. An example of such racism is directed at the Chinese and Japanese. For example, if there is Chinese blood in one’s lineage, then one’s family can never be categorized as loyal in the songbun system.[11] Even greater discrimination is experienced if one is found with Japanese blood in one’s family.[12]   This is a simple, but important example of how ideology in North Korea warrants the practice of discrimination. A similar narrative was told in South Africa under the apartheid regime—where the system created racial “superiority” and “inferiority.” The North Korean government may argue that it is not racially discriminatory, but if one were to remove race from South Africa’s apartheid and ideology from North Korea’s songbun, both systems would be identical. It is, therefore, recognized that North Korea’s Kim regime is practicing a contemporary form of apartheid, which is, in itself, a crime against humanity and one which is abolishable by international law.

In 2014, the United Nations released the Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.[13] The report concluded that “the North Korean government systematically violated human rights including freedom of thought, expression and religion; freedom from discrimination; freedom of movement and residence; and the right to food.”[14] It was further concluded that North Korea had committed all crimes against humanity as listed in Article 7(1) of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, except for the crime of apartheid. The allegations pitted against North Korea have been vehemently denied by the Kim regime. Despite the report concluding that the crime of apartheid had not been perpetrated, it is still submitted that North Korea’s Kim regime is currently practicing a contemporary form of apartheid by institutionalizing its segregation and discrimination with such vigour, and this is condemned by international law and public policy.

The Kim regime’s practice of apartheid is based on political and social ideology. This is a formal and systematic institution aimed at segregated development—leading to a wealthy elite and a down-trodden lower class (i.e., the “hostiles”). As mentioned above, Collins neatly draws the parallels between the two systems, indicating that both systems display the following: an instruction on class distinction that is based on background and origin (in South Africa’s apartheid it was based on race); prohibitions on any class interaction; forced relocations to substandard living areas; restrictions on public gatherings; the provision of inferior education, health facilities and housing; fewer and inferior employment opportunities which are generally subject to economic and physical exploitation.[15] One striking example that is common under both systems is the pass laws.[16] In South Africa, the apartheid regime introduced the dompas meaning “dumb pass”—a form of identification for non-whites to travel within the country.[17] Black people, in particular, were required to carry this identification when moving from one place to the next. Police had the right to conduct inspections and failure to produce a pass would result in physical assault, arrests and detainment, and deportation to the homelands without the ability for future travel.[18] While this is no longer a practice in South Africa after the abolishment of apartheid, North Korea still actively and formally restricts the movement of its people. It is clear that both songbun and apartheid have created a similar system of discrimination, where any opposition is met with violence and often death.

It must be understood that apartheid is a system structured on three pillars: discrimination, territorial fragmentation, and political repression—the crux of the apartheid concept.[19] This was perpetrated in South Africa under the apartheid regime and is currently being perpetrated by North Korea’s Kim regime under the songbun system. If one had to remove the element of race as being the sole basis for discrimination in South Africa, then one would find that the exact same forms of discrimination are being perpetrated today in North Korea. Therefore, it is not only the element of race that is important, but the fact that North Korea has formally and systematically institutionalized a system of discriminating and dividing its people.

The crime of apartheid is heavily condemned by international law. Article 1 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid declares that apartheid is a crime against humanity as does the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[20] The Additional Protocol 1, Article 85(4)(c) states that practices of apartheid shall be regarded as grave breaches of the Protocol. Furthermore, the International Law Commission’s Draft Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind, 1991 as well as the 1996 Draft Code define apartheid as a crime against humanity. They also indicate that it is a form of institutionalized discrimination that is based on racial, ethnic or religious grounds involving the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms and resulting in the disadvantage of certain groups of the population. If this is the definition, then the crime of apartheid can be extended beyond the bounds of race to describe any formalized and systematic institution that promotes segregated development. This is clearly seen in North Korea’s songbun system. The crime is exacerbated by the fact that any dissent by the people, especially those lower in the class system, is met with severe punishments, including arbitrary arrests, staged trials, torture in custody, incarceration, forced labour, and executions.[21]

In Michael Kirby’s statement on the North Korean human rights situation, he makes direct reference to South Africa’s apartheid regime[22] under which many international human rights breaches were committed.[23] North Korea’s Kim regime and its practice of songbun is indeed a contemporary apartheid—inherently discriminatory—condemned by international law and in candidacy for being abolished. Furthermore, Kirby makes direct references to South Africa’s apartheid and even Germany’s Nazism,[24] two systems which have been overwhelmingly condemned by the international community for their severe human rights violations and, as a result, abolished. Kirby calls for the immediate and complete abolishment of North Korea’s apartheid-like songbun system.[25]

Because the crime of apartheid stringently requires that racial discrimination be evident, this outdated view may permit the continuation of human rights violations. It can be argued that for the purposes of prosecuting human rights violations, especially on such a large scale where an entire country is at risk, the law must be willing and flexible enough to be developed, and governments, international institutions, and courts can adopt a more liberal approach to interpreting the legal definition of apartheid so that its application is not restricted. Therefore, the interpretation of apartheid should be extended to include North Korea’s different social classes based on ethnic backgrounds under the discriminatory songbun system as this has resulted in large-scale human rights violations against the North Korean people. It is suggested that while the inherent segregation in North Korea is not necessarily based on race, the formalized and systematic separation does consign people to a certain type of life based on lineage—resulting in a privileged elite and a punished, “inferior” lower class.[26] Furthermore, North Korea’s ideology, which is driving the idea that the Korean race is superior, can be argued to constitute a form of racism. Whichever way you view it, it is a fact that human rights violations are being perpetrated.

Beyond the stringent definition of race, it is evident that North Korea’s Kim regime is in contravention of a form of apartheid because control over the population has been formalized and is systematic. The regime has established an institution—the Korean Workers’ Party—that controls and closely monitors the idea of segregated development (much like South Africa’s apartheid National Party). The system aims to divide and punish. The recognition of the crime of apartheid in North Korea would ensure international awareness and accountability. If one had to look at South Africa, a country that was plagued by the crime of apartheid under which people and families were destroyed, one would see that such organized segregation and discrimination can and should be abolished. Whether one calls it apartheid or songbun, a system that leads to a “superior” and an “inferior” should never be tolerated by the international community. The apartheid concept was formally introduced in the context of South Africa but seeing that it is still prevalent in North Korea as a form of contemporary apartheid means that it is still relevant and must be given due and urgent attention to be abolished under international law.

[1] “Statement by Michael Kirby Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 17 March 2014,” United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14385.
[2] Elizabeth Shim, “Ex-UN official: North Korean caste system is the new apartheid,” UPI, March 26, 2021, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/10/22/Ex-UN.
[3] “Apartheid: Social Policy,” Britannica, accessed March 22, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid.
[4] The Population Registration Act 30 of 1950 required people to be identified and registered from birth as one of four distinct racial groups: White, Indian, Coloured and Bantu (Black African).
[5] Yvonne Erasmus and George Ellison, “What can we learn about the meaning of race from the classification of population groups during apartheid?” S. Afr. j. sci. vol.104 n.11-12 Pretoria (Nov./Dec. 2008).
[6] “The History of Separate Development in South Africa,” South African History Online, accessed March 22, 2021, https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-separate-development-south-africa.
[7] Ibid.
[8] “Internal and External Pressure to Negotiate in South Africa: An Interview with Roelf Meyer,” Conciliation Resources, accessed April 27, 2021, https://www.c-r.org/accord/incentives-sanctions-and-conditionality/internal-and-external-pressure-negotiate-south.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Robert Collins, South Africa’s Apartheid and North Korea’s Songbun: Parallels in Crimes Against Humanity, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (2021).
[11] This is according to North Korea’s songbun caste system that categorizes citizens into one of three main categories: loyal, wavering, and hostile. This is based on several factors, one of which is lineage.
[12] Robert Collins, South Africa’s Apartheid and North Korea’s Songbun: Parallels in Crimes Against Humanity, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (2021).
[13] “Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” United Nations Human Rights Council, accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/coidprk/pages/ reportofthecommissionofinquirydprk.aspx.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Robert Collins, South Africa’s Apartheid and North Korea’s Songbun: Parallels in Crimes Against Humanity, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (2021).
[16] These are laws that restrict the freedom of movement and under which citizens are only allowed to move around by producing proof of identification and by adhering to curfews and other travel rules and regulations.
[17] “The Infamous Dompas of Apartheid,” Tours Du Cap, accessed April 28, 2021, https://toursducap.com/en/2015/03/20/the-infamous-dompas-of-apartheid/.
[18] “Pass Law,” South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid Building Democracy, accessed April 28, 2021, https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?kid=163-582-15.
[19] “Apartheid, International Law, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Oxford Academic, European Journal of International Law, March 29, 2021, https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/24/3/867/481600.
[20] Article 7(1)(j) of the Rome Statute indicates that apartheid constitutes a crime against humanity.
[21] “North Korea Events of 2019,” Human Rights Watch, accessed on April 27, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/north-korea.
[22] “Statement by Michael Kirby Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 17 March 2014,” United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14385.
[23] Carola Lingaas, “The Crime against Humanity of Apartheid in a Post-Apartheid World,” Idunn: Oslo Law Review, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.idunn.no/oslo_law_review/2015/02/the_crime_against_humanity_of_apartheid_in_a_post-apartheid.
[24] “Statement by Michael Kirby Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 17 March 2014,” United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14385.
[25] “Statement by Michael Kirby Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 17 March 2014,” United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14385.
[26] “North Korea an “Apartheid” State,” News24, accessed March 28, 2021, https://www.news24.com/news24/MyNews24/North-Korea-an-Apartheid-State-20111228.