Marked for Life: Songbun North Korea’s Social Classification System A Robert Collins Marked for Life: SONGBUN, North Korea’s Social Classification System Marked for Life: Songbun North Korea’s Social Classification System Robert Collins The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 435, Washington, DC 20036 202-499-7973 www.hrnk.org Copyright © 2012 by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 0985648007 Library of Congress Control Number: 2012939299 Marked for Life: SONGBUN, North Korea’s Social Classification System Robert Collins The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 435 Washington DC 20036 (202) 499-7973 www.hrnk.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Jack David Committee for Human Rights in Senior Fellow and Trustee, Hudson Institute North Korea Paula Dobriansky Former Under Secretary of State for Democ- Roberta Cohen racy and Global Affairs Co-Chair, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution Nicholas Eberstadt Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute Andrew Natsios Co-Chair, Carl Gershman Walsh School of Foreign Service Georgetown President, National Endowment for Democracy University, Former Administrator, USAID David L. Kim Gordon Flake The Asia Foundation Co-Vice-Chair, Executive Director, Maureen and Mike Mans- Steve Kahng field Foundation General Partner, 4C Ventures, Inc. Suzanne Scholte Katrina Lantos Swett Co-Vice-Chair, President, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights Chairman, North Korea Freedom Coalition and Justice John Despres Thai Lee Treasurer, President and CEO, SHI International Corp. Consultant, International Financial and Strate- Debra Liang-Fenton gic Affairs Former Executive Director, Committee for Hu- Helen-Louise Hunter man Rights in North Korea, Secretary, The U.S. Institute of Peace Attorney and Author Winston Lord Greg Scarlatoiu Former Ambassador to the People’s Republic Executive Director of China Morton Abramowitz Marcus Noland Senior Fellow, the Century Foundation Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics Jerome Cohen Of Counsel (Retired Partner) Jacqueline Pak Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP Professor, Cornell University Lisa Colacurcio Richard S. Williamson Advisor, Impact Investments Principal, Salisbury Strategies Rabbi Abraham Cooper Associate Dean, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (affiliations provided solely for identification) ABOUT THE AUTHOR benefitted from a number of gener- ous private donors, some of whom are Robert Collins, who has lived and worked members of our Board, and others who in South Korea for over three decades, has are not. met with and interviewed North Korean defectors and refugees since the 1970’s. The printing of this report was paid for by Mr. Collins received his Master’s Degree private contributions made in memory from a Korean-language program in inter- of a member of our Board of Directors, national politics from Dankook University Jaehoon Ahn, a North Korean defector in Seoul in 1988. He is a 37-year-veteran of whose distinguished career included the the U.S. Department of Defense. His profes- extraordinary achievement of being the sional focus during that period was politi- founding director of the Korean service of cal analysis of North Korea and Northeast Radio Free Asia. His personal dedication Asian security issues. After retiring from the to revealing the truth about North Korea Department of Defense, Mr. Collins contin- continues to inspire his colleagues in ued conducting research on the Kim Washington and many of his fellow defec- regime’s political structure using Korean- tors in Seoul. language sources at major Korean libraries and think tanks, as well as through inter- The Committee’s aim is to present a views with over 75 North Korean refugees. comprehensive report that takes into This report is based on that research. The account all known information about author dedicates it to those refugees. North Korea’s highly discriminatory politi- cal stratification system called songbun. We were very fortunate to be able to engage as the author of this report Mr. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Robert Collins, whose decades of service to the United States Government in Korea This study owes a great deal to the dedi- brought him into contact with North Kore- cation and hard work of many people. ans who had found their way to Seoul as The Committee for Human Rights in North early as the 1970s. An American whose Korea had the support of a major private knowledge of North Korean politics and foundation, which made this extensive proficiency in the Korean language research project possible. No funds from permits him to engage in in-depth discus- any government were used in the prepa- sions with defectors and conduct research ration of this report. The Committee also in major Korean archives, Robert Collins I Marked for Life: SONGBUN, North Korea’s Social Classification System has prepared a study that should enlight- study of the text helped make it the impor- en the world about songbun. tant exposé it is. Appreciation also goes to former Co-Chair and founding Board The Committee is particularly grateful for member Richard V. Allen, who strongly the contribution of the late Congressman promoted the songbun report and gave Stephen J. Solarz, its former Co-Chair. He priority attention to reviewing it. The report understood that, in order to compre- was completed under the management hend the nature of North Korea’s deeply of Chuck Downs, former executive direc- entrenched pattern of human rights viola- tor of the Committee for Human Rights in tions, one had to grasp the true nature of North Korea, whose contributions were songbun. Few politicians knew the term essential to the success of this endeavor. songbun, but Stephen Solarz did. He also was struck by similarities between North A number of highly talented interns have Korea’s songbun and South Africa’s system volunteered to work with the Commit- of apartheid, which although different, are tee while they pursue academic studies both based on the inequality of people. in Washington. Nine who contributed Having long campaigned against the their fine research, writing, and editing system of racial segregation in South Afri- abilities to this report—Jason Keller, Nicho- ca, when turning to North Korea, Stephen las Craft, Samantha Letizia, Maria Kim, Solarz saw how songbun also created Hannah Barker, Mintaro Oba, Rosa Park, deep divisions in society, and prevented Hyungchang (Vincent) Lee and James people from sharing the same opportuni- Do—deserve special mention for their work ties and from exercising their basic human on drafts of this report. Rosa Park’s graphic rights. Under both systems, inequality is artistic skills and talent enhance the pages assigned at birth, perpetuated throughout of this report, and are demonstrated in the a person’s lifetime and cruelly enforced by design of its cover. those in power to benefit themselves and their supporters. Greg Scarlatoiu Executive Director The contributions of time and effort of Committee for Human Rights in North Korea Members of the Board of Directors are June 6, 2012 not usually mentioned in our reports, but Co-Chair Roberta Cohen and Helen- Louise Hunter deserve special mention here, because their close reading and II Robert Collins FOREWORD ries are grouped into three broad castes: the core, wavering, and hostile classes. The North Korean government is one of Kim Il-sung gave a public speech in 1958 the few totalitarian regimes remaining in in which he reported that the core class the world. Even Cuba, one of the other represented 25%, wavering class 55%, and remaining totalitarian regimes, is begin- hostile class 20% of the population. ning to liberalize its economy however reluctantly, while it maintains total control These three classes may have affected over its political and social systems. A how families fared during the Great totalitarian regime in this context may be Famine of the 1990s, which Hwang Jang- defined as a government where every yop—the regime’s chief party ideologue aspect of human life is controlled and who defected to South Korea in 1997— ordered by the state to further the political estimated may have killed 3.5 million objectives of the ruling elite. In an authori- North Koreans. In mid-1998 the World tarian state—while repressive and often Food Program, UNICEF, Save the Children, brutal—people are generally allowed and the European Union conducted the some measure of control over their private first country-wide survey of the nutritional lives, as long as they do not threaten the condition of North Korean children. They power structure and existing order. The reported that 32% of the children showed North Korean government has the notable no evidence of malnutrition, 62% suffered distinction of being one of the most brutal, from moderate malnutrition, and 16% repressive, and controlled political systems suffered from severe acute malnutrition, of the past century. with an error rate of 5%. While the survey had its limitations because of restrictions North Korean totalitarianism is maintained placed on the effort by the North Korean through several powerful means of social state, it is noteworthy that the size of the control, the most elaborate and intrusive three social classes is about the same as of which is the songbun classification the size of the nutritional categories. If the system. The songbun system in some ways regime was feeding people