A United Nations report said North Korean children, as young as ten and under, are being drafted into forced labor.

Such findings were included in the latest report on the North's use of forced labor based on 183 interviews with victims and witnesses between 2015 and 2023, released on Tuesday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) in Seoul.

The report said children are being forced into labor at farms, mines and in lumbering, and it is customary for those seeking to be exempt to make a payment.

The report also mentioned other types of human rights abuse committed by the regime, such as forced labor at detention centers, the state's forcible work assignment, and a maximum ten-year military conscription.

Referring to a considerable amount of information indicating that the North's correctional authorities force "extensive and systematic" labor upon civilians who are deemed a threat to the regime leadership, the report said violations committed in the process could amount to the crime against humanity of "enslavement."

The UN agency recommended North Korea to abolish all forms of forced labor and to guarantee laborers' autonomy, health care, safety and labor rights. It also called on the international community to ensure a close surveillance of supply chains with possible links to forced labor by the regime.