Suggested citations
AGLC4 | 인민보안단속법 2005 [People's Security Enforcement Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (2005)] [tr Daye Gang].
Bluebook | Inminboandansogbeob 2005 [People's Security Enforcement Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (2005)] translated in Law and North Korea by Daye Gang, https://www.lawandnorthkorea.com/.
Adopted on December 28, 1992, as Decision No. 22 of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on March 24,1999, as Directive No. 540 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on September 13, 2001, as Directive No. 2566 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on May 22, 2002, as Directive No. 3052 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on July 26, 2005, as Directive No. 1226 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
CHAPTER I. BASICS OF PEOPLE’S SECURITY ENFORCEMENT LAW
Article 1
The People’s Security Enforcement Law of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea shall serve to strictly adopt systems and order in people’s safety enforcement to deter acts of violating legal order and correctly investigating and handling them.
Article 2
Adopting legal order across society is the direction and requirement of the people and public. The State shall support the interests of the people and public in people’s safety enforcement and must rely on their strength and wisdom.
Article 3
Violating legal order is a harmful act that corrodes the interests of the State, the people, and the public. The State shall strengthen law-abiding culture and legal enforcement to prevent acts of violating legal order in advance.
Article 4
The State shall assure scientificity, objectivity, and caution in people’s safety enforcement.
Article 5
In the treatment of a person who has violated legal order, the State shall orient itself towards social education and shall correctly combine legal sanctions.
Article 6
The State shall not abuse human rights or abuse its authority in people’s safety enforcement.
Article 7
This law shall be applied to persons who have not violated legal order to the degree to pursue criminal liability.
CHAPTER II. SUBJECTS OF PEOPLE’S SAFETY ENFORCEMENT
Article 8
Correctly determining subjects of enforcement is the first process of people’s safety enforcement work. People’s safety institutions must strictly enforce acts of violating legal order.
Article 9
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts that cause danger to the political safety of the State.
Article 10
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts such as pillaging the property of institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens.
Article 11
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts such as carelessly managing facilities, resources, or produced goods to make them unusable, or falsely reporting the state of implementation of a plan, or violating export and import order.
Article 12
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts such as illegally selling products or violating the designated price.
Article 13
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of illegally pilfering the facilities or resources of institutions, enterprises and organizations, or earning money by arranging labour facilities such as food kiosks without approval.
Article 14
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of illegally organizing earning money as the employee of an institution, enterprise, or organizations.
Article 15
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against not correctly managing agricultural machinery or draft cattle, or acts of violating the storage and use order of agricultural supplies such as fertilizer or agricultural pesticides.
Article 16
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of foreign currency earning without managing a foreign currency earning base, or acts of violating foreign currency management order.
Article 17
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of wasting electricity, such as things like illegally using an electric heater.
Article 18
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of not commanding the state of employees’ presence and absence at work in time, or things like not attending work without a lawful reason, or not abiding by working hours.
Article 19
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of recklessly mobilizing the labour of institutions, enterprises and organizations for other work, or acts of not mobilizing planned labour in time.
Article 20
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against medical workers insincerely treating patients or a person who is not a medical worker treating patients.
Article 21
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of superstition such as fortune telling, fabricating or distorting the truth, or spreading heresy.
Article 22
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of copying and disseminating degenerate music, dance, drawings, photographs, or books, or violating the registration and use order of computers, printers, or recorders attached to semiconductor radios.
Article 23
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against delinquent acts such as gang fighting, sexually harassing women, or applying dirty things to the clothing of others.
Article 24
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against drinking alcohol and behaving indecently in public places, damaging public facilities, or violating their use order. However, enforcement may not be carried out where they could interfere with the cultural and aesthetic standards of the people.
Article 25
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against walking on railways and highways, or acts of violating public morals and designated order on tourist roads and their surroundings.
Article 26
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against damaging facilities installed on trains, tramways, or buses, or acts causing inconvenience to their proper operation.
Article 27
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against brewing alcohol for the purposes of business or bartering, or buying and selling goods prohibited by the State or buying and selling goods outside of markets.
Article 28
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against illegal smuggling or trafficking, or acts of crossing the border without authorization.
Article 29
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against hiding, selling, or buying stolen goods.
Article 30
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of violating travel order or order in walking around.
Article 31
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens violating the storage and use order of secret materials or print facilities.
Article 32
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against institutions, enterprises, organizations and Neighborhood Units violating security order.
Article 33
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of violating the order of
identity registration, accommodation registration, or home use.
Article 34
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts violating traffic safety order and driving order, such as not registering or receiving a technical inspection for a wheeled vehicle, driving after drinking alcohol, or operating wheeled vehicles that exceed the emission standards and expel harmful gases.
Article 35
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against institutions, enterprises and organizations not having fire prevention facilities or equipment or acts of constructing or using buildings or flammable substance storage facilities.
Article 36
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts that violate the order of handling explosives, guns, and radioactive and toxic substances.
Article 37
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of internal pressure facilities, heating facilities, man-riding winch facilities, and ferryboats not receiving inspections during designated periods or violating their operating order.
Article 38
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of not adopting measures to prevent floodwater damage, earthquake damage, or accidents from falling into water.
Article 39
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of catching or gathering beneficial animals and plants at prohibited times and places or using prohibited methods, acts of recklessly deforesting forests or secretly felling trees, and acts of polluting water, air, or soil.
Article 40
People’s safety institutions shall enforce the law against acts of assaulting, defying, or insulting a person who reports or advises about acts of violating legal order.
CHAPTER III. PEOPLE’S SAFETY ENFORCEMENT METHODS AND PROCESSES
Article 41
Strictly abiding by people’s safety enforcement methods and processes is an important guarantee to protect the rights and interests of people that allows the correct struggle against acts of violating legal order. People’s safety institutions must abide strictly by the enforcement methods and processes provided for under this law.
Article 42
In cases where a people’s safety official enforces the law against a person who has violated legal order, he or she shall state his or her identity and inform the person of the reasons for the law enforcement, then shall confirm the identity of the person, may view goods or documents accepted to be related to the act that has violated legal order, or may investigate the required content.
Article 43
In cases where the identity or content of the violation of legal order cannot be correctly confirmed for person against whom the law is enforced, a people’s safety official may request the person against whom the law is enforced and any witnesses to go together to a different place, to a people’s safety institution, or to his or her office. The person against whom the law is enforced and any witnesses shall comply with the request of the people’s safety official and must truthfully respond to any question related to the act of violating legal order.
Article 44
In cases where a people’s safety official has collected, received a report of, or received a transfer of control over materials related to the act of violating legal order, he or she must register it on the register and must investigate it.
Article 45
People’s safety officials must find evidence for acts of violating legal order and must secure it on a report that includes an affidavit. In necessary cases, photographs may be taken or a recording or video recording may be made. Recorded or video recorded content may be used as evidence only if there is a given report.
Article 46
In cases where the law is enforced against a person who has violated legal order, a report shall be drafted in the field or in the required place. In cases where several people have colluded to violate legal order, reports shall be individually drafted. In necessary cases, the content of the statement may be received in the own writing of the person making the statement. On the report shall be stated the social status of the person against whom the law is enforced, the date, place, and basis of enforcement, and shall stamp the seal or thumbript of the drafter, of the person against whom the law is enforced or a witness, and of any expert witness, interpreter, or observer.
Article 47
People’s safety officials may arrest any person who absconds after violating legal order or has violated legal order by colluding, or any person interfering with investigations, any vagabond, and any person whose identity cannot be confirmed. Any transportation methods that have violated operating order including cars, tractors, or ships may also be seized.
Article 48
In cases where a person who or transportation method that has violated legal order is sought to be arrested or seized, it shall be registered on the register and shall receive the ratification of the person responsible in the unit within 24 hours. An arrested person may not be put to labour and seized transportation methods may not be used.
Article 49
In cases where a person who has violated legal order has been arrested, the Public Prosecutors shall be informed within 24 hours. The family and workplace or office of domicile of the arrested person shall also be informed.
Article 50
The arrest period of the person who has violated legal order shall be 3 days for a People’s Safety Office or up to 10 days for a city (or district) or county People’s Safety Office. Wheeled vehicles may be seized for up to 10 days by a city (or district) or county People’s Safety Office.
Article 51
In cases where it is accepted that there is no other method to arrest a person who gravely disorders legal order, such as a person who has violated legal order does not comply with the enforcement and absconds, or a person who assaults an official enforcing the law, technical equipment may be used.
Article 52
A people’s safety official may do the following to investigate and deal with a person against whom the law has been enforced for an act of violating legal order.
1. The required explanations may be heard from workers of institutions, enterprises and organizations or from individual citizens.
2. A body search may be conducted of the person and clothing of the person against whom the law has been enforced, to find traces, characteristics, or goods related to the act of violating legal order. In these cases, two observers will be in attendance.
3. Goods and documents related to the act of violating legal order may be stored in a people’s safety institution or a required place until the day the given investigation concludes.
4. Scientific and technical assistance may be received from a specialist analysis institution or from a person who has a State qualification or professional knowledge in the given sector.
Article 53
People’s safety officials may work with the masses in people’s safety enforcement and may use transportation methods or technical equipment kept by institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens, in cases where urgently necessary to arrest a person who has violated legal order and is absconding.
CHAPTER IV. TREATMENT OF PERSON AGAINST WHOM THE LAW IS ENFORCED
Article 54
The treatment of a person against whom the law is enforced is important work to rehabilitate a person who has violated legal order.
People’s safety institutions must treat the person who has violated legal order by taking into consideration his or her rehabilitative potential and the degree of dangerousness of the act of violating legal order.
Article 55
In cases where the law has been enforced against a person who has violated legal order, he or she may be handed over to the people’s safety institution with jurisdiction over his or her domicile or workplace or may be treated with education. In these cases, things such as the given report and exhibits must be handed over together with the person. A soldier against whom the law has been enforced shall be handed over to the authorities concerned together with the report.
Article 56
A people’s safety official who has enforced the law against a person who has violated legal order must raise the materials about violating legal order, after receiving the ratification of the person responsible in the unit, to the given people’s safety institution’s responsible workers’ committee.
Article 57
The people’s safety institution’s responsible workers’ committee shall deliberate on the materials about violating legal order and may give a punishment of labour education, suspension of qualifications, demotion, qualifications deprivation, suspension, confiscation, or may give the treatment of education. In cases where an administrative punishment not specified in the first paragraph is sought to be given, it shall be raised with the socialist law-abiding life guidance committee, and in cases where criminal responsibility is sought to be pursued, the Criminal Procedure Law shall be followed. A person who has violated travel order, traffic order, driving operations order may have a penalty directly imposed.
Article 58
The treatment period for a person who has violated legal order shall be within 30 days of the day of enforcement.
Article 59
People’s safety institutions may raise opinions about measures to eradicate unlawful acts orally or in writing to institutions, enterprises and organizations to correct acts of violating legal order. Opinions about measures must specify how the content of the violation of legal order shall be rectified using which methods and by when. Responsible workers of institutions, enterprises and organizations who have received an opinion about measures must fix the defects within the specified period and must inform the people’s safety institution.
Article 60
In cases where the act of violating legal order is mild, a guarantee document may be received from the guardian of the person who has violated legal order or from a person who has taken responsibility for his or her education and education treatment may be applied.
Article 61
Means used to violate legal order or unreasonably obtained money and goods may be seized or confiscated. Seized goods and confiscated goods shall be treated according to a separately determined process.
Article 62
A person who has an opinion about the handling of a people’s safety enforcement may raise it with a higher level people’s safety institution within 10 days of the day the enforcement was handled. A people’s safety institution that has received an opinion shall investigate and deal with it within 15 days and must inform the person who has raised the opinion.
Last updated 13 September 2021