Procedures
Courts exist in law but are not independent of the Party
The Civil Procedure Law provides for people's courts at three levels with a right of appeal. Judges are elected by assemblies and are not independent, so there is no impartial forum for a claim against the state.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — People's courts at city and county level, provincial courts, and the Central Court. No foreign judgment recognition practice is documented.
Governing law
- Civil Procedure Law of the DPRK
- Law on the Court of the DPRK
- Socialist Constitution (arts. 156-168)
In practice
The Constitution makes courts accountable to the Supreme People's Assembly, which is the opposite of judicial independence, and the Commission of Inquiry found that the judiciary does not function as a check on executive or security-agency action. There is no published case law, no accessible cause list and no independent legal profession, so the procedural rules cannot be tested against practice. Commercial parties dealing with DPRK entities therefore rely on offshore arbitration clauses, which face their own enforcement problems given sanctions.