North Korea Caste System ‘Underpins Human Rights Abuses’
9th June 2012
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 report from a US-based advocacy group argues.
“Every North Korean 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 Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said.
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 report said.
As we have seen in other places, Communism is merely the Western-respectable window dressing that traditional societies are using to carry on as they have for millenia.