North Korea’s economy has suffered one of its biggest contractions as it battled through an almost three-year COVID-19 lockdown, the second-worst drought in 40 years and continued international sanctions. As the hermit country’s most vulnerable people slip deeper into starvation, its government ordered periods of intense crackdowns on the rapidly growing number of homeless people along the China-North Korea border for threatening to hinder state emergency quarantine efforts and tarnishing the image of socialism. Meanwhile, more and more women were forced to enter into the sex trade as North Korea’s paralyzed economy left ordinary citizens with no other option for survival. 

ORDERS TO HIDE THE HOMELESS

North Korean authorities were alarmed by the reappearance of crowds of homeless people along the border and feared an upcoming wave of illegal border hoppers and defectors as more people approach the country’s “strict security zones” along the border, which warrants unauthorized trespassers to be shot at unconditionally as part of its COVID-19 preventative measures. 

Most importantly, its leadership was reportedly worried that photos showing homeless North Koreans could be taken from the Chinese side of the border, which a source told Daily NK that they “could be misused in the anti-Republic schemes of enemies, who run around trying to pull down our ideology and socialist system.” According to Daily NK, the Ministry of Social Security recently issued “Order 1541” to intensify crackdowns and take tougher control and management on the homeless. Provincial branches of the ministry were also called to “eradicate” the homeless who appear daily in markets, near train stations, at garbage dumps, along train tracks, in train tunnels and under bridges, and house them in temporary buildings or inns, while homeless adults would be allocated to take part in labor-intensive activities in labor brigades.

INTENSIFIED CRACKDOWNS ON STREET PROSTITUTION

Prostitution became widespread in North Korea since the late 1990s, a time when women were forced to find ways to survive after the government suddenly stopped distributing rations to its people. However, Article 249 of North Korea’s Criminal Code states that women who are caught engaging in prostitution can receive a punishment of up to one year of forced labor, and up to five years at a forced labor correctional facility in more serious cases.

In practice, prostitution is a crime that is even punishable by public execution, mostly by firing squad. For example, in July 2020, the state executed six people including four party officials for operating a prostitution ring that involved female college students and senior officials in Pyongyang. Following a crackdown in August 2020, more than 50 female students from two prominent Pyongyang performing art colleges, who were reportedly driven into prostitution by poverty brought on by the endless demands for school fees, were sent to a labor camp for three to six months for their alleged involvement in a prostitution network that catered to Pyongyang’s elites. The investigation also revealed that under government pressure to raise money, prestigious schools arbitrarily demanded money from students, and as a result, at least 200 school students “who have difficult family circumstances are thereby forced into prostitution.”

Due to the economic difficulties caused by COVID-19, there has been a rise in the number of North Korean women working as prostitutes. In March 2022, the authorities even arrested mothers of newborns who turned to prostitution in order to put food on the table. More recently, Kim Jong-un ordered the Social Security Department and Socialist Patriotic Youth League to carry out intensive crackdowns on street prostitution in major cities, including Chongjin and Hamhung. A source told Radio Free Asia that on July 30, 2022, district-level meetings were held to educate young people in an effort to deter them from selling their bodies for money, while a meeting in Chongjin’s Sunam district publicly criticized several young female prostitutes, whereby “each of the eight women on the stage revealing their names, ages, home addresses, and their jobs, and forcing them to criticize themselves.” It was reported that the authorities’ searches in train stations, parks and streets for suspected prostitutes have been met with success, with approximately 30 girls in their teens and 20s arrested on the first day of the crackdown as they begged men who were waiting for the train at Hamhung station at night to pay for their services for as little as 30,000 won (U.S. $4.30).