North Korea is increasingly resorting to the death penalty for citizens caught watching or sharing foreign films and television dramas, according to a new United Nations report that paints a grim picture of life under
The BBC reports that the UN Human Rights Office, after more than 300 interviews with North Korean escapees over the past decade, found that the regime has tightened its grip on “all aspects of citizens’ lives,” warning that “no other population is under such restrictions in today’s world.”
Surveillance has grown “more pervasive,” boosted by advances in technology, the report said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned: if current trends persist, North Koreans “will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long.”
Since 2015, at least six new laws have allowed capital punishment for offenses including the viewing or distribution of foreign media. Escapees said that since 2020, public executions by firing squad have been carried out to instill fear.
One defector, Kang Gyuri, told the BBC that three of her friends were executed for possessing South Korean content.
She recalled attending the trial of a 23-year-old friend who was sentenced to death.
“He was tried along with drug criminals. These crimes are treated the same now,” she said.
Hopes that Kim Jong Un’s rise to power in 2011 would improve conditions quickly evaporated.
The report noted that human rights and living standards “degraded” after Kim abandoned diplomacy with the West in 2019 in favor of ramping up his nuclear program.
For many North Koreans, even food remains scarce. Escapees described three meals a day as a “luxury,” while the Covid pandemic brought fresh waves of hunger and death. At the same time, the state intensified border crackdowns, ordering troops to shoot defectors on sight.
“In the early days of Kim Jong Un, we had some hope, but that hope did not last long,” one woman, who escaped in 2018 at age 17, testified. “The government gradually blocked people from making a living independently, and the very act of living became a daily torment.”
The UN report also highlighted growing use of forced labour, with orphans and children from poor families drafted into “shock brigades” for mining and construction. Torture, abuse, and malnutrition remain rife in prisons and political camps, even as some escapees noted a “slight decrease in violence by guards.”
The findings echo a landmark 2014 UN inquiry that accused North Korea of crimes against humanity. The UN has once again urged that the situation be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but China and Russia remain barriers at the Security Council.
