A recent visit by North Korean prosecutors to Russia has opened discussions on expanded judicial cooperation between the two countries, raising alarm about potential threats to defectors and human rights protections.
“The delegation from the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office that went to Russia at the beginning of this month exchanged views with Russian prosecutors about modernizing the centralized prosecutorial system and increasing international cooperation. The trip was tied to a law enforcement overhaul happening inside (North Korea) ahead of the Ninth Party Congress,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK recently.
The delegation submitted a detailed report on their Russian discussions to the Workers’ Party of Korea on Aug. 19, covering several key areas of potential collaboration.
First on the agenda was cooperation on digitizing the judicial system. The delegation explored adopting elements of Russia’s modern digital law enforcement programs, including electronic record keeping, digital evidence processing and AI analysis. Both sides also exchanged documents outlining future working-level cooperation.
The report also covered people-to-people exchanges between the two prosecution services. The North Korean delegation proposed organizing working-level training programs at Russia’s prosecution academy and other institutions, with both sides agreeing to exchange formal proposals in early October. Essentially, North Korea wants to tap into overseas expertise to strengthen its prosecution capabilities.
Additionally, the two sides discussed signing a memorandum of understanding about exchanging legal information between their countries.
“The Workers’ Party believes an MOU would symbolize our deepening ties and expanding cooperation between our judicial organizations,” the source explained.
Criminal enforcement cooperation raises red flags
The report revealed that both sides had extensive discussions about criminal law enforcement cooperation. They talked at length about establishing systems for joint investigations into cybercrime, drug smuggling, and attempts by North Korean workers in Russia to escape or engage in other criminal behavior.
The situation of North Korean workers in Russia carries particular weight in these discussions.
Previously, Russia had tried to follow international protocols regarding defectors’ asylum requests, provided they weren’t facing criminal charges. But as North Korea and Russia have strengthened their relationship since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities are increasingly arresting and repatriating North Korean defectors while sharing information about people already granted asylum.
“From an international law perspective, North Korea and Russia could claim their prosecution and law enforcement discussions are simply state-to-state crime cooperation. But if their cooperation agenda includes repatriating North Korean workers in Russia and North Korean defectors, that would clearly violate the international refugee convention and the principle of non-refoulement — not forcibly returning people who face mistreatment,” said Kim Tae Won, a research fellow at the Korean Institute for National Unification, in a phone interview with Daily NK.
“Russian repatriation of defectors in cooperation with the North would face criticism as an obvious violation of international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. If that cooperation becomes part of criminal discussions at the International Criminal Court related to the war in Ukraine, Russia could face even harsher international criticism,” Kim added.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported earlier that a working-level delegation from the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, led by Vice-Director Yun Kwang Won, had left Pyongyang International Airport for Russia on Aug. 4 and returned to North Korea on Aug. 8.
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