North Korea · Overview
The legal system of North Korea
A socialist legal system subordinate to the Workers' Party of Korea. Codified law exists and some of it is published — a Civil Law (1990), a Family Law (1990), a Criminal Law repeatedly revised since 1950, and a growing body of foreign-investment and special-economic-zone legislation — but this profile describes the published statute book, which cannot be treated as a description of practice. There is no accessible body of case law, no independent bar, and no judicial review. The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry documented a parallel extrajudicial system of political detention camps operating outside the published codes, and successive UN Special Rapporteur reports describe routine denial of the procedural rights the codes nominally confer. Every entry for this country should be read with that gap in mind.
Legal tradition
North Korea belongs to the socialist law tradition. A socialist legal system subordinate to the Workers' Party of Korea. Codified law exists and some of it is published — a Civil Law (1990), a Family Law (1990), a Criminal Law repeatedly revised since 1950, and a growing body of foreign-investment and special-economic-zone legislation — but this profile describes the published statute book, which cannot be treated as a description of practice. There is no accessible body of case law, no independent bar, and no judicial review. The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry documented a parallel extrajudicial system of political detention camps operating outside the published codes, and successive UN Special Rapporteur reports describe routine denial of the procedural rights the codes nominally confer. Every entry for this country should be read with that gap in mind.
How power is divided
Unitary and centralised. Nine provinces and several specially administered cities, with directly administered special economic and tourist zones — Rason, Kaesong, Wonsan-Kalma and others — that operate under their own investment statutes offering terms unavailable in the rest of the country. Local people's assemblies exist but exercise no autonomous legislative competence.
Where law comes from
- The Socialist Constitution
- Interpreted by the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, not by courts.
- Laws and ordinances of the Supreme People's Assembly
- Selectively published; several compilations circulate only in Korean.
- Decisions of the State Affairs Commission and Cabinet
- Subordinate instruments carrying substantial practical force.
- Party policy and the leader's instructions
- Operate above published law in practice; the Party's leading role is constitutional.
- Special zone statutes
- Separate investment, labour and dispute rules apply inside Rason and the other designated zones.
The legal profession
There is no independent legal profession. Lawyers practise through the Korean Lawyers Committee, a state-controlled body, and defence representation in criminal proceedings is appointed rather than freely chosen. Foreign investors in the special economic zones generally use foreign counsel and contractual arbitration outside the country, because domestic representation and domestic dispute resolution offer no independent forum.
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