North Korea has enacted a comprehensive labor management law aimed at bringing all work activities under state control, including targeting people engaged in illegal informal labor activities outside the socialist planned economy.
Daily NK recently obtained portions of the “Labor Management Law” adopted May 29 as Decree No. 1929 by the Standing Committee of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly.
The law exhibits a fundamental contradiction between its stated objectives and actual mechanisms. Article 1 presents the legislation as aimed at ensuring workers enjoy autonomous and creative employment experiences, but the substantive provisions establish a framework for comprehensive state oversight of labor management.
The documentation system outlined in Articles 14 and 15 creates mandatory state intermediation in all worker placements. Government agencies must issue official dispatch orders for labor assignments, while receiving organizations are required to complete employment processing based on these state-issued documents. This administrative structure effectively ensures that all labor allocation flows through official channels, providing authorities with systematic control over workforce distribution and worker mobility.
The regulatory framework suggests that despite proclaimed commitments to worker independence, the law’s primary function is to establish centralized state management of the labor market through required documentation and procedural oversight.
Hwang Hyun-wook, a senior researcher at Daily NK’s AND Center, described the law as consolidating scattered regulations into a comprehensive statute addressing deployment, mobilization, organization, and punishment. He explained that it reflects an intent to centralize labor management authority and reinforce control through legal justification.
Targeting informal market activities
According to Hwang’s assessment, the law functions as a mechanism for reinforcing institutional control over the population’s movement and economic activities. The legislation particularly impacts individuals who opt for entrepreneurial or market-based work rather than traditional state employment – a group commonly referred to as money earners.
“Money earners” refers to people who keep their names on workplace rosters while paying set amounts to engage in private economic activities. A similar concept is “8.3 workers.” Daily NK reported in March that North Korea was strengthening controls to completely eliminate “8.3 labor” this year. This law provides legal grounds for such control measures.
The law also includes separate provisions for labor mobilization, bringing even temporary work under state control.
Article 16 establishes that labor can be mobilized for national construction projects and regional or sectoral development work when such needs arise, following prescribed procedures. Articles 17 and 18 mandate that mobilization demands must be accurately calculated based on work volumes and available labor sources to create scientifically sound and practical mobilization plans.
The law requires proper authorization for labor mobilization, with Article 20 stipulating that labor mobilization orders are mandatory before any labor can be organized. Article 22 places responsibility on receiving organizations to provide adequate working conditions, living arrangements, and safety protections for mobilized workers, while ensuring accurate payment of compensation.
Article 23 outlines that state planning agencies, grain management agencies, transportation agencies, and other related institutions, enterprises, and organizations are required to ensure the provision of food, fuel, transportation, and other essential resources for rural mobilization in accordance with established plans. Additionally, relevant farms and banking institutions are obligated to ensure the accurate payment of wages to rural mobilization workers.
This appears intended to thoroughly manage and control even temporary labor mobilization under state guidance. North Koreans become subordinated to state directives not only at their assigned workplaces but also during temporary mobilization.
According to international standards, cases where individuals cannot voluntarily choose and accept jobs or freely quit employment constitute “forced labor.” North Korea appears to be institutionalizing forced labor by establishing legal grounds for both regular and temporary mobilization work.
Punishment for violations
The law also includes separate punishment provisions for labor deployment and mobilization violations.
Article 40 mandates warnings or severe warnings for failing to properly conduct labor deployment work that hinders business activities, delaying labor deployment procedures, or illegally mobilizing workers without obtaining mobilization certificates.
Article 41 specifies stronger penalties including up to three months of unpaid labor or labor training for: causing social problems by failing to properly conduct deployment and mobilization work; illegally issuing dispatch or mobilization certificates in exchange for money or goods; failing to process procedures without justification; or illegally using labor under pretexts of material or funding support.
The Labor Management Law goes beyond simply institutionalizing overall labor management by providing punishment grounds for directly penalizing North Koreans and institutions. Despite claims of guaranteeing “independent and creative working life,” it likely functions as new legal shackles institutionalizing forced labor under the banner of a socialist planned economy.
Hwang observed that “going forward, labor movement will be virtually impossible without dispatch or mobilization certificates, placing North Koreans in a structure where they are forcibly tied to state-designated locations.” He pointed out that the law “restricts people’s freedom to choose their jobs and hinders the informal economic activities they rely on for survival.”
The portions of the law obtained by Daily NK can be read in English here.
