북한의 형사절차상 인권보호 규정에 관한 연구 - 위법수집증거배제법칙을 중심으로 -

Abstract

North Korea which is unlike the image of a country that violates human rights internationally reflects the provisions for human rights protection in criminal procedures in the Criminal Procedure Act. In particular, North Korea has revised several times since adopting the Criminal Procedure Act in 1950 and stipulated Articles 29 and 37, which contain the meaning of a kind of ‘law to exclude illegal collection evidence’. Article 29 stipulates the collection of evidence by the principle of due process for 'non-explained evidence', and Article 37 declares the 'confession exclusion law' for 'explained evidence'. However, according to the ‘North Korean Human Rights White Paper’ published by the Institute for Unification in 2021 and the ‘North Korean Human Rights Commission Report’ of the UN Human Rights Council in 2014, in the criminal procedure, North Korea was confirmed that torture and inhumane acts against the subject (the suspect), and the defendant (the defendant) are still being carried out. In this way, North Korea is showing formally closed the rule of law for human rights protection, in fact, human rights violations are frequently committed against the relevant regulations in criminal procedures, in this process, it can be assumed that the evidence collected illegally is used as evidence of guilt. Therefore, this study examines the Regulations on the ‘Laws of Exclusion of Unlawful Collection and Evidence’ in North Korea and compared and analyzed related regulations between Korea and foreign countries to examine cases of human rights violations in North Korea's criminal procedures.