A death has occurred from beatings and torture in a Ministry of State Security (MSS) detention center in Ryanggang Province.

“In the afternoon of September 20, a man from Hyesan, Ryanggang Province died at a provincial MSS detention center,” said a Ryanggang Province-based source on September 27. “He was continually beaten by a mid-level soldier-guard who was part of the provincial MSS preliminary hearing department and died 17 days after being arrested.”

According to the source, the man was arrested by provincial MSS agents belonging to an anti-espionage team. The 73-year-old man was reported to the authorities by a broker who had been helping him make phone contact with his family members in South Korea in early September.

North Korea strictly punishes those who make contact with the outside world, and the country added regulations concerning punishment in its reform of the criminal code in 2015, with the “Crime of Illegal International Calls” (Section 222) that reads: “Anyone who makes an international call illegally will be sentenced to up to one year of forced labor or up to five years of forced labor reform.”

The man was arrested during a call to his relatives and was subjected to continual beatings and torture during his interrogation, the source reported. He was unable to eat properly and was frequently hit with a 20-kilogram club wielded by his 22-year-old interrogator.

On the day he died, the man had just finished being interrogated by the provincial MSS investigation department and was heading back to the detention center. He was then ordered to bow to his knees on the stairs and clasp his hands behind his back by the guard. The man did not clasp his hands behind his back, however, and the guard hit him with his club, which ultimately led to his death, reported the source.

Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which North Korea has signed, proclaims that, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation,” while Article 10 states that, “All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.”

North Korea’s criminal code (Article 6) also states that, “The state shall thoroughly guarantee the human rights [of all detainees] during the course of the investigation of a criminal case,” but there are still frequent cases of unjustified beatings and torture occurring in the country.

The 2018 North Korean Human Rights White Paper published by the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) in April states that, “In North Korea, despite regulations concerning criminal law and criminal litigation, there are frequent cases of torture and inhumane treatment occurring during the course of criminal investigations and torture is used frequently as a method during the interrogation process to entice detainees to confess.”

According to a separate source in Ryanggang Province with knowledge of the incident, the man’s family, on hearing that he had died, went to the provincial MSS office and requested that his body be returned to them, but the MSS refused to do so stating that, “the body of a traitor cannot be buried.”

The additional source also reported that the man’s family continued to protest to the authorities, saying, “he didn’t try to defect, and even if he committed a crime, shouldn’t his body be returned to his family?” The MSS, however, threatened the family by asking whether, “they wanted to become traitors, too?”

“The authorities cremate the bodies of traitors at a special facility once a month and it seems that the man’s body was cremated there,” he said.