Countries: North Korea
Variables: UVAW-PRACTICE-1

"Despite claims by officials in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) that gender equality has been achieved, North Korean women and girls are subject to intense and pervasive human rights abuses including sexual and gender-based violence, widespread discrimination, and enforcement of rigid gender stereotypes" (par. 1).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: ATFPA-PRACTICE-2, AFE-PRACTICE-1

"In interviews in Human Rights Watch’s 2018 report 'You Cry at Night but Don’t Know Why,' North Korean students and teachers explained that in mixed gender classes boys were almost always made leaders and that male teachers usually made decisions in schools, even though the majority of teachers in the school were women. Social structures and conventions that discriminate against women are also reflected in socially enforced rules of interaction between girls and boys. As teenagers, girls are often asked to use an honorific form when speaking to boys, even though there is no reverse requirement. This practice continues through university, extending into the workplace, marriage, and family life" (par....more

Countries: North Korea
Variables: CWC-DATA-3

"According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, 81 percent of North Korean escapees in 2019 were female, prior to the Covid-19 related border closure. This can partly be explained by the decreased scrutiny women face compared to men in North Korea, as men are required to go to state-run workplaces while many married women stay at home to care for the family" (par. 8).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: DV-LAW-2

"Cho Byul Me, a former smuggler from North Hamkyung province who left North Korea in 2014, explained that she sometimes had to run away from her house when her husband started beating her up, but had nowhere to go. 'Eventually I’d just have to go back home and wait outside the door sometimes in the bitter cold, under the snow or the rain, until I’d think he had fallen asleep,' she said. 'I had nowhere to go and I would have left him if I had anywhere to go'" (par. 6).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: DV-PRACTICE-2

"Girls learn they are not equal to boys and cannot resist mistreatment and abuse, and that they should feel shame if they become targets of abuse by men, whether in the home or in public space" (par. 2). "Domestic violence in North Korea is considered a “private matter” and cases of sexual harassment and violence, even in public, go virtually unreported" (par. 6). "Others have stated that the stigma surrounding the victims of sexual violence and harassment prevents women and girls from seeking redress. Survivors of sexual assault lack the language itself to describe what happened to them, an issue compounded by the lack of public sex education in the...more

Countries: North Korea
Variables: ERBG-DATA-2

"Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, women were estimated to contribute more than 70 percent of the country’s household incomes" (par. 10).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: ERBG-DATA-5

"Because married women are not forced to go to official workplaces like their husbands, and single women are not universally conscripted into the military, North Korean women had more mobility to work in the informal markets (jangmadang)" (par. 10). "Reports from before the pandemic estimated that women comprised roughly 80 percent of the market" (par. 10). "Participation in the markets gave them stronger voices at home, increased their decision-making power about finances and children’s education, and improved their access to information about issues inside and outside of North Korea. Involvement in these informal markets was one and perhaps the only way that North Korean women enjoyed empowerment and autonomy in...more

Countries: North Korea
Variables: EWCMS-LAW-2

"Because married women are not forced to go to official workplaces like their husbands, and single women are not universally conscripted into the military, North Korean women had more mobility to work in the informal markets (jangmadang)" (par. 10).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: GP-DATA-1

"According to North Korea’s 2016 state party report submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), women had minimal representation in positions of influence within the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), comprising 10 percent of divisional directors in government bodies, 11.9 percent of judges and lawyers, 4.9 percent of diplomats, and 16.5 percent of officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the time of that report, there were no women in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK, the main policymaking mechanism in the country" (par. 4). "The number of women in the Central Committee has doubled between 2016...more

Countries: North Korea
Variables: TRAFF-PRACTICE-2

"In addition, many North Korean women and girls are trafficked and sold to Chinese men or enter the sex industry in China. The Chinese trafficking markets are well connected with local Chinese authorities, who facilitate these practices" (par. 8).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: LRCM-PRACTICE-1

"Notably, during North Korea’s CEDAW Committee review in 2016, one government official did not even seem to understand questions about 'marital rape' or what the term meant, and asked the committee to explain it. The same official also claimed that punishments for superiors coercing women into sex should be much less than in cases of rape involving outright physical violence, because, the official claimed, there is less of an impact on victims" (par. 7).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: IIP-PRACTICE-2

"Girls learn they are not equal to boys and cannot resist mistreatment and abuse, and that they should feel shame if they become targets of abuse by men, whether in the home or in public spaces" (par. 3). "However, women leaving their homes to work in the markets also exposed them to increased gender-based discrimination. Female North Korean escapees told Human Rights Watch that the increased visibility of women in markets drew scrutiny from the authorities. North Korea’s vague laws and the possibility of technical illegality in nearly all market business activity created opportunities for guards or officers to harass or detain women in the markets, including by extracting bribes...more

Countries: North Korea
Variables: IIP-LAW-1

"North Korea’s vague laws and the possibility of technical illegality in nearly all market business activity created opportunities for guards or officers to harass or detain women in the markets, including by extracting bribes in the form of sexual demands." (par. 11).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-2

"In addition, many North Korean women and girls are trafficked and sold to Chinese men or enter the sex industry in China. The Chinese trafficking markets are well connected with local Chinese authorities, who facilitate these practices. Still, the Chinese government routinely labels North Koreans as illegal 'economic migrants' and forcibly repatriates them under a 1986 bilateral border protocol. The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report on the human rights situation in North Korea found that North Korean escapees who are forcibly repatriated face systematic torture, arbitrary detention, and sexual violence, including invasive body searches and forced abortions, that amount to crimes against humanity" (par. 8).

Countries: North Korea
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"North Koreans could face up to six months of labor sentences for sporting 'rooster' hairstyles or see-through sleeves under new fashion ban regulations" (par. 1). "The latest restrictions were unveiled in video lecture where individuals caught with prohibited hairstyles were forced to shave their heads, a resident of the North Hamgyong province told Radio Free Asia" (par. 2). "North Korea has a long list of prohibited fashion items including sleeveless shirts, jeans, hair dye, non-creased pants, T-shirts with foreign lettering, shoulder bags, shorts and tight-fitting tops" (par. 3). "Citizens are also banned from having hair the falls below the waistline, imitating the hairstyle of ruler Kim Jong Un and sporting...more