Daily NK has acquired the full text of North Korea’s Juvenile Crime Prevention Law, which the North Korean regime enacted to prevent information from the outside world from reaching young people.
The law was adopted by a decree from the standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sept. 25, 2020. At the time, North Korea made little mention of the committee meeting or the law being enacted.
Significantly, the law was enacted several months before the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act was implemented in December 2020. The latter law, also called the “anti-reactionary thought law” or “Law on the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture,” is regarded as North Korea’s signature act aimed at ideological control.
“Generally speaking, laws for the general public are enacted first, and then laws addressing subsets of the population are added later, in phases. So it’s a little odd that a law focusing on minors was enacted before the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act,” said Hwang Hyun-uk, senior researcher at Daily NK’s AND Center.
“Since the law has fewer detailed provisions than other laws, it may have been enacted first because it required less fine-tuning. Other considerations may have been that juveniles are more prone to impulsive crimes and more likely to spread information from the outside world,” Hwang said.
The full text of the Juvenile Crime Prevention Law acquired by Daily NK consists of 18 articles. The law’s ostensible purpose is to prevent crimes by minors and raise them up to be reliable workers for the nation.
Article 9 of the law includes a list of the following prohibited behaviors for minors: (1) producing, storing, consuming or distributing impure publications or materials; (2) copying or imitating the South Korean dialect; (3) wearing clothing or grooming oneself in exotic ways; (4) gambling; (5) acting like a thug; (6) indulging in superstitious behavior; (7) consuming tobacco, beer or liquor or (8) possessing deadly weapons.
The provisions about impure publications, the South Korean accent and exotic clothing appear at the beginning of the list, indicating that the North Korean authorities are particularly concerned about young people engaging in those behaviors.
North Korea’s civil code categorizes those aged 14 and below as juveniles, and the criminal code states that such individuals cannot be held criminally responsible. So the “juveniles” mentioned in this act are young children and teenagers aged 14 and below.
Therefore, the law is focused not on punishing young people but on boosting education about obeying the law and keeping minors from getting entangled in criminal and illegal behavior.
Article 5 of the law states that “schools need to provide education about the law in conjunction with political, ideological and moral education, in a manner appropriate to minors’ psychological development and preparation.”
Article 7 mandates that parents provide their children (and legal guardians, their charges) with better guidance and keep them in hand.
In addition, the law requires preventive reporting about juveniles’ crimes and illegal behavior. Articles 10 and 12 deal with the reporting requirement, while Article 11 of the law codifies mandatory self-reporting by young people. The law encourages self-reporting by pledging to “treat minors who turn themselves in with leniency and clemency under the law.”
Article 14 of the law provides the following list of behaviors that are prohibited because they could have a negative impact on minors: (1) producing and selling clothing that is not characteristically North Korean; (2) recording, editing, producing or printing impure materials; (3) selling alcohol or tobacco; and (4) facilitating child labor. That section reflects the regime’s goal of protecting minors by eliminating harmful elements in society.
While juveniles (those under the age of 14) cannot be punished under North Korea’s civil or criminal code, Article 18 of the law stipulates that “individuals responsible for the education of minors can face administrative or criminal penalties depending on the circumstances.” That suggests the regime’s determination to thwart the influence of foreign ideology and culture by mobilizing teachers and parents to fully control minors.
“This law expresses the (regime’s) intention to control the whole population — not just adults, but junveniles, too. It appears to be an attempt to bring young people who cannot be held civilly or criminally responsible for their actions under the oversight of the country’s legal system,” said Hwang, the researcher.
The full text of the law in Korean can be found here. The unofficial English translation is here.
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