North Korea grades its citizens by the background of their families, and that grade, called songbun, decides much of what they can do with their lives. A United Nations panel traced the discrimination in the country to the system, which sorts people by state-assigned class and birth. It also weighs their political opinions and religion.
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Songbun is a Korean word meaning “ingredients”, according to The Diplomat. It says Kim Il Sung, the founder of the state, created it.
What a grade decides
The UN panel said songbun used to be the most important factor in setting where a person could live and what housing they had. It also steered their job, their access to university, their food ration and even whom they might marry.
One witness told the panel her low songbun stopped her returning to Pyongyang, where she was born. A university rejected her application to study dance, and she was sent to work on agricultural projects.
The Guardian reports that the grade is recorded at birth. A policeman stamps it on a baby’s file, and it is set by the status of the father. Tertitskiy, writing for the Guardian, says it settles where the child may live, which university it can enter and whether it can join the Workers’ Party.
The Diplomat quotes Kim Byung Wook, a defector. He says his low songbun kept him out of the military and sent him to a college that did not lead to a good job.
How many grades there are
Sources disagree on the shape of the scale. The Guardian describes five statuses: special, nucleus, basic, complex and hostile. The Diplomat describes three broad groups, called core, wavering and hostile.
The Diplomat adds that a 2012 report by Robert Collins, published by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, counted 51 grades in all. Fyodor Tertitskiy of Kookmin University told it that details leaked in 1993 and that the system may have changed since.
The Diplomat says a 1958 remark by Kim Il Sung put 25 percent of people in the core class, 55 percent in the wavering class and 20 percent in the hostile class.
Can a grade change
Tertitskiy likens songbun to the old Indian caste system but says it is more flexible, because grades are sometimes raised or lowered. Collins compares it to apartheid in South Africa, but he accepts that a person can change grade in exceptional circumstances.
The UN panel said money has complicated the old pattern, as marketisation and foreign currency have changed who can reach rights such as education and health care.
Grade also matters abroad. Greg Scarlatoiu told Deutsche Welle that North Korea picks workers for jobs overseas from people with good songbun. The workers are married men with children, so their families stay behind in North Korea.
