52 2) The political structure of domination and women’s human rights North Korea has stipulated in its constitution that “as citizens, everyone holds the same rights in all spheres of national and social life (Art. 65 Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)”19 and has thus claimed the equality of its residents free from discrimination and exclusion. Furthermore, in its second periodic report to the ICCPR treaty body North Korea asserted that citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are not discriminated against on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status and are guaranteed equal rights in accordance with the provisions of the international convention.20 Contrary to these claims, however, it is a widely known fact that following liberation from Japanese colonial rule, North Korea has carried out a series of political examinations through which residents have been rigorously classified according to family background and social origin, thus unfolding highly discriminatory policies. What is important is that such discriminatory policies are in a fundamental way the product of the political structure of domination within the North Korean system and constitute the principal mechanism for sustaining and reproducing this system. These policies provide the basis for a hierarchization of society through an authoritarian order in which the ‘Suryeong’ stands at the top, and they are founded on a dominant culture centred on the power of men. Thus, women can be conceived as persons exposed not only to the political and social, origin-based discrimination which applies to all residents but also to discrimination deriving from the dominant culture centred on male power. This means that North Korean women are restricted in two ways: they are confined by the political structure of domination based on a vertical, hierarchical structure with a divide between dominating and dominated, and by an intersecting, subordinate structure based on a hierarchy of the sexes. As a result, North Korean women are faced with discrimination 19 National Intelligence Service. 2008. North Korean Law Collection. Seoul: National Intelligence Service, p. 13. 20 Korea Institute for National Unification. 2008. White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea. Seoul: Korea Institute for National Unification, p. 123.