Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that North Korea has been operating a fraudulent scheme to force people held in prison camps to produce coal and other goods for export; and what assessment they have made of the report by The Citizen’s Alliance for North Korea Human Rights Blood Coal Exports from North Korea, published on 24 February, that political prisoners, including children, are enslaved in coal production to enable the development of North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programme.

The UK remains deeply concerned about the appalling human rights situation in the DPRK and is aware of reports that people held in prison camps are enslaved in coal production and other goods for export. The UK is unable to verify these reports, but we are clear that the DPRK must address the many reports of continued and wide-spread human rights violations in the country, including the arbitrary detention of its citizens. That is why in July 2020, the UK designated two DPRK entities through the Global Human Rights sanctions regime, including the Ministry of State Security Bureau 7 and Ministry of People's Security Correctional Bureau.

The UK continues to call for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea and remains committed to upholding sanctions on North Korea, working with international partners to curtail North Korea's nuclear and missile capability. UN Security Council Resolution 2371, passed in August 2017, banned all North Korean coal exports. The UK continues to raise with the other members of the UN Security Council our concerns about North Korea's evasion of UN sanctions and the illicit maritime export of commodities, including coal.