The North Korean government is increasingly implementing the death penalty, including for people caught watching and sharing foreign films and TV dramas, a major UN report has found.
The dictatorship, which remains largely cut off from the world, is also subjecting its people to more forced labour while further restricting their freedoms, the report added.
The UN Human Rights Office found that over the past decade the North Korean state had tightened control over 'all aspects of citizens' lives'.
'No other population is under such restrictions in today's world,' it concluded, adding that surveillance had become 'more pervasive', helped in part by advances in technology.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stated that if this situation continued, North Koreans 'will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long'.
The report, compiled through over 300 interviews with defectors from North Korea, highlights a troubling trend of increased executions for distributing foreign content, with at least six new laws enacted since 2015 that enable the death penalty for this offense.
Defectors detailed how executions are conducted publicly by firing squads to instill fear and discourage would-be offenders. Testimonies reveal that since 2020, more people have faced dire consequences for merely accessing South Korean media. A notable account comes from Kang Gyuri, who escaped in 2023, sharing her harrowing experience of witnessing friends wrongly executed for their media consumption.
When Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, hopes for socio-economic improvements filled the hearts of many citizens. Yet, the last decade has seen a stark decline in living conditions and human rights as the regime shifted its focus away from diplomatic engagement to militarization and nuclear armament.
The UN report details a grim landscape where three meals a day are considered a luxury. Many citizens faced dramatic food shortages during the Covid pandemic, exacerbating the desperation as regulations stifled trade in essential markets.
Forced labour is now commonplace, with vulnerable individuals assigned to 'shock brigades' for arduous tasks, often referred to as essential labor for national progress. Still, these strenuous jobs come with high risks of injury and even death, with the regime labeling these fatalities as sacrifices to Kim Jong Un.
The report echoes findings of a previous UN commission that declared systematic crimes against humanity in North Korea. While some improvements were noted in political prison camps, torture and abusive treatment persist.
The UN now advocates for international action, suggesting the necessity to refer the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court. However, political dynamics within the UN Security Council, particularly with the blocking influence of China and Russia, pose barriers to meaningful intervention.
As the UN urges for an end to political prison camps and the abolishment of the death penalty, the cry for change among North Koreans, particularly the youth, remains persistent amid bleak realities.
