NORTH KOREA – North Korea is increasingly using the death penalty — including against citizens caught watching or sharing foreign films and TV dramas — as part of a widening campaign to suppress freedoms, a new United Nations report has revealed.
The UN Human Rights Office said Pyongyang had tightened its grip on “all aspects of citizens’ lives” over the past decade, with surveillance now more pervasive thanks to advances in technology.
“No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” the report concluded, warning that if the trend continues, North Koreans “will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long,” according to UN rights chief Volker Türk.
Based on more than 300 interviews with escapees, the report found at least six new laws since 2015 allow for executions, including for consuming foreign media.
Witnesses described public shootings by firing squads, designed to instil fear.
One woman, who fled in 2023, told the BBC she had watched a friend sentenced to death for possessing South Korean content.
Hopes for reform when Kim Jong Un took power in 2011 have evaporated, the report said.
Since abandoning diplomacy with the West in 2019, Kim has doubled down on weapons development, while living conditions and rights have deteriorated.
Most escapees said food shortages were chronic, with three meals a day considered a “luxury.”
During the Covid pandemic, many starved. Informal marketplaces — once a lifeline for families — were shut down, and border controls with China tightened, with soldiers ordered to shoot those attempting to flee.
The UN also reported a rise in forced labour, including “shock brigades” deployed to hazardous construction and mining projects.
Orphans and street children have been drafted in recent years, with deaths often glorified as sacrifices to Kim.
At least four notorious political prison camps remain operational, with detainees enduring torture, overwork, and malnutrition, though the UN noted “slight decreases in violence by guards.”
The rights office has urged the situation be referred to the International Criminal Court.
But any move requires UN Security Council approval, where China and Russia have consistently shielded Pyongyang.
Last week, Kim appeared alongside Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at a military parade in Beijing, underscoring the backing he enjoys from China and Russia despite global condemnation.
The UN is demanding the abolition of prison camps, an end to executions, and the teaching of human rights inside the country.
“Our reporting shows a clear and strong desire for change, particularly among young people,” Türk said.
