North Korea under Kim Jong-Un has intensified its use of brutal executions, with a significant number of them being punishment for individuals caught watching and sharing foreign movies and TV series, according to a recent UN report. Additionally, the authoritarian regime has escalated the coercion of certain citizens into forced labor camps and implemented extensive restrictions on the freedom of its people.
A report from the UN Human Rights Office reveals that in the last decade, North Korea has tightened its grip on “all aspects of citizens’ lives.” The report highlights the unprecedented level of control imposed on the population, stating that routine surveillance has become even more widespread. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that if this oppressive environment persists, North Koreans will continue to face increased suffering, repression, and fear.
Based on interviews with over 300 defectors from North Korea, the report indicates a surge in the use of the death penalty in recent years. Since 2015, the regime has introduced at least six new laws that allow for capital punishment to be administered. One of the offenses punishable by death is the consumption and dissemination of foreign media content, as Kim Jong-Un aims to isolate his people from external influences. Defectors have reported a rise in executions related to the sharing of foreign material starting from 2020.
Public executions by firing squads are carried out to instill fear and discourage violations of the law. Kang Gyuri, an escapee from North Korea in 2023, recounted the execution of three friends who were caught with South Korean content. She witnessed the trial of a 23-year-old friend who received a death sentence, equating these crimes with drug offenses in the eyes of the regime.
The report also exposes an increase in forced labor under Kim Jong-Un’s rule over the past decade. Testimonies from defectors have shed light on public executions in Pyongyang, where individuals were tied to large guns and obliterated. Inhumane practices such as the selection of young women as sex slaves for Kim Jong-Un and trafficking victims into China have been reported.
Severe human rights abuses, particularly in political prison camps, continue to plague North Korea. The report underscores the existence of four operational political prison camps, where individuals can be imprisoned indefinitely and subjected to enforced disappearances. While some slight improvements have been noted, incidents of torture and mistreatment of detainees persist in regular prisons.
Since assuming power in 2011, Kim Jong-Un has pursued nuclear capabilities at the expense of widespread suffering among the North Korean population, marked by famines, disease outbreaks, and starvation. The dictator’s militaristic ambitions have led to the deployment of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine as mercenaries, exacerbating the plight of his people.
Despite an armistice, North and South Korea remain technically at war, with a heavily fortified border separating the two nations. Escaping North Korea is met with harsh consequences, including execution or incarceration in labor camps. Witnesses have recounted instances where North Korean troops compel children and parents to witness public executions as a means of indoctrinating them into compliance with the oppressive regime.