North Korea (2024)

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is very limited information on child marriage in North Korea, but available studies show that it is driven by:

Trafficking:According to reports by the Human Rights Council and Human Rights Watch, women and girls are trafficked by force or deception from North Korea into China for the purpose of exploitation in forced marriage or concubinage (“common law marriages”). If they return to North Korea, they are treated as criminals and subjected to harsh punishments. The United States 2019 and 2021Trafficking in Persons Reportcorroborates this, noting that North Korean women who are forced into marriage often lack identification documents to confirm their name or age.

Violence against girls: Some North Korean families have raised concerns that widespread sexual abuse may damage their daughter’s future marriage prospects. This demonstrates a high value placed on girls’ virginity.

Gender inequality: Women in North Korean are subjected to subordination and a socio-political class system, known as songbun, that groups people into loyal, wavering or hostile classes. A woman’s class is dependent on her male relatives and marriage. Women are viewed to have a lower position in society and are expected to remain sexually pure until marriage, which is viewed as a symbol of respect and obedience for family and their husband.

North Korea has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government submitted a 2021 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage.

North Korea ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2001, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2017, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged North Korea to conduct a comprehensive study into violence, neglect and sexual abuse towards girls.

In 2017, the CEDAW Committee recommended North Korea to increase the minimum age of marriage to 18 years.

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, North Korea agreed to examine recommendations related to raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 years.