The human rights situation in North Korea has worsened, with people even being executed for distributing foreign movies and shows like K-dramas, according to a new UN report.
The report, authored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), warned of new laws, policies, and practices implemented by Pyongyang, leading to increased surveillance and control over citizens.
Pyongyang strictly cracks down on Western influence and information flow into the isolated country.
Last year, a 22-year-old citizen was publicly executed for listening to and sharing K-pop music and films, according to South Korea’s unification ministry.
More such executions take place regularly but remain obscure to the world outside.
The latest report was compiled based on interviews with 314 witnesses who left North Korea and after consulting with several organisations and experts to evaluate the human rights conditions there since 2014.
Many of the citizens have ended up in forced labour camps, as political prisoners, “bringing even more suffering to the population”, the report warns.
“We do have credible evidence that individuals have been executed, not just for watching K-dramas. The crime is for distributing at a certain level, foreign information, foreign media,” OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell said on Friday.
The report also warned of labour called “shock brigades” set up by Pyongyang authorities, where thousands of orphans and street children are forced to work in coal mines and other environments, exposing them to hazardous materials and long working hours.
“The government says that this is sort of a curriculum to help them learn life skills. But the information we’ve had for many years now is that it meets the qualification of forced labour because the children have no choice,” said James Heenan, head of the OHCHR office on North Korea.
Deaths at these labour camps are reportedly frequent, but publicly glorified as a sacrifice to the leader, according to the report.
Escapees report that from 2020, there’s more rampant execution of citizens, even for distributing unauthorised media, drugs and economic crimes, prostitution, pornography, trafficking and murder.
Six new laws enacted since 2015 allow the use of the death penalty for offences vaguely defined “anti-state” propaganda, the report noted.
Pyongyang has also organised public executions to instil fear in the population and as a deterrent, escapees said.
“To block the people’s eyes and ears, they strengthened the crackdowns,” one of the witnesses said.
The new report points to a further degrading human rights situation in North Korea linked to its increasing self-imposed isolation.
It remains more isolated than any other country, further complicating measures to monitor and implement fair human rights standards.
“It pains me to say that if DPRK continues on its current trajectory, the population will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long,” said UN human rights chief Volker Türk.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea said in response to UN rights investigators that it rejected a UN Human Rights Council resolution authorising the latest report.
