A new and damning report from the UN Human Rights Office has shed a harsh light on the deteriorating human rights situation in North Korea. According to the report, the regime is increasingly imposing the death penalty, even for seemingly minor offenses like watching or sharing foreign films and television shows. The report is based on over 300 interviews with recent escapees and paints a grim picture of life under a regime that has tightened its grip on “all aspects of citizens’ lives.”
UN human rights chief Volker Türk noted that the level of state control is unprecedented in the modern world. “No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” the report states, concluding that if the country continues on its current path, its citizens “will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long.”
The findings reveal that since 2015, North Korea has passed at least six new laws that broaden the use of the death penalty, including for distributing foreign media. Escapees recounted a disturbing trend of increased public executions by firing squad since 2020. One escapee, Kang Gyuri, who fled in 2023, shared a heartbreaking account of three friends who were executed for watching South Korean content. “He was tried along with drug criminals. These crimes are treated the same now,” she said.
The report also details the worsening living conditions for many North Koreans, with interviewees reporting growing hunger and repression, especially since Kim Jong Un abandoned diplomacy in 2019 to focus on weapons development. One woman who escaped in 2018 said, “In the early days of Kim Jong Un, we had some hope, but that hope did not last long.” She added that the government has increasingly prevented people from earning an independent living, turning “the very act of living into a daily torment.”
In addition to the executions, the UN report documents the widespread use of forced labor. The regime is reportedly recruiting impoverished citizens and even orphans into “shock brigades” for hazardous work. Although a “slight decrease in violence by guards” was noted in some political prison camps, the report confirms that at least four such camps are still in operation, where torture and deaths from abuse are common.
In response to these findings, the UN has called for the situation to be referred to the International Criminal Court. The organization also urged Pyongyang to abolish its prison camps, end executions, and educate its citizens on human rights. The UN’s human rights chief expressed a glimmer of hope, noting that their “reporting shows a clear and strong desire for change, particularly among (North Korea’s) young people.”
