Kim Jong-Un orders divorcing couples to labour camps under tough new rules in North Korea
30 December 2024, 16:09
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has allegedly ordered that divorcing couples be sent to labour camps for up to six months, with women possibly due to face even longer sentences.
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He said ending a marriage demonstrates anti-socialist sympathies and should be punished.
It signifies a toughening of existing laws, which previously only punished the party seeking the divorce - even in cases of physical abuse.
Under new rules, both spouses will be imprisoned once the divorce is finalised, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
A resident of the northern Ryanggang province said: “I went to the Kimjongsuk County People’s Court ... where 12 people received divorce decrees.
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“Immediately after the verdict, they were transferred to the county labour training camp.
“Until last year, when a couple divorced, only the person who first filed for divorce was sent to a labor training camp.
“Starting this month, all divorced couples will be sent to labour training camps.”
Similarly, in Korea, divorce is considered both an insult to socialism but also the Confucian values that unite thinking in both the north and south.
Following Covid-19, RFA reported that divorce rates have increased as lockdown constraints increased the financial stress that couples faced.
Rates of divorce are not said to have significantly dropped even though citizens are now threatened with public humiliation and expulsion from the Korean Workers' Party.
One resident commented: "My brother also divorced after three years of marriage.
“His wife first submitted a divorce application to the court and received a divorce ruling. She was sent to a labour camp for six months, while he has to do one month.”
Another woman who had stayed in the correction facility said the majority of divorcees are in their late 30s.
She said: "There are about 80 women, and 40 men imprisoned in the county labor training camp.
“About 30 men and women were imprisoned due to divorce decrees, and the women’s sentences were longer.”
