“From one to six months of labor camp to atone for their crime”: North Korea declares war… on divorcees

In North Korea, daily life remains a constant struggle. Inspired by the Soviet model at its most rigid, this reality is often marked by terror and multiple deprivations. Since 2011, the country, ruled with an iron fist by Kim Jong-un, has gone through major crises, including a famine in the early 2020s. The Covid-19 pandemic, which has accentuated the isolation of this society already reclusive, made the situation worse. Four years after this sharp decline, the North Korean economy remains in great difficulty, despite apparent social progress such as a high level of urbanization, a universal education system and a functioning medical network. Poverty and food insecurity nevertheless continue to dominate.

With extreme poverty, an explosion in the number of divorces

This climate of precariousness has direct repercussions on family life. Divorce cases are sharply increasing in a context where hope for improvement seems non-existent. To try to stem the phenomenon, Pyongyang recently revised its legislation: from now on, a separation requires the agreement of both spouses to be validated by a court of law.

Faced with this increase, the authorities opted for repressive measures. Men and women who break the bonds of marriage are now sent to labor camps for a period of one to six months, in order to atone for their “crimes”, according to testimonies collected by Radio Free Asia.

Humiliation as a deterrent

Before this drastic decision, the regime had tried a different approach. An educational program targeting mainly women had been launched to promote “family values”. However, these efforts were accompanied by public humiliation aimed at stigmatizing divorced parents. Companies where the divorce rate was considered too high were also singled out and held responsible.

Gendered repression

According to a woman recently released after three months in a labor camp, women are systematically punished more heavily than men. According to her, the majority of divorces concern people in their thirties and forties, often pushed to separation by financial difficulties. These tensions give rise to domestic violence, of which women are the first victims. It is they who, in most cases, initiate divorce proceedings, which would explain the increased severity of the sanctions imposed on them.

With an economy still drained and a society under tension, the regime's reforms seem intended more to strengthen its control than to resolve the structural problems at the origin of these family ruptures.