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, said 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, based on more than 300 interviews with individuals escaping North Korea in the past 10 years, illustrates how the death penalty is being utilized more frequently.
At least six new laws have been introduced since 2015, subjecting individuals to the death penalty for crimes including the consumption of foreign media. Kim Jong Un's regime aspires to limit citizens' access to information.
Witnesses and escapees recounted an increase in executions for distributing foreign content since 2020, utilizing public firing squads as a method of instilling fear among the populace.
Individuals like Kang Gyuri, who escaped in 2023, have testified to the harrowing consequences faced by those sharing foreign media, illustrating how offenders are subjected to the same legal scrutiny as drug criminals.
Life under Kim Jong Un's regime has become increasingly harrowing, with citizens expressing disillusionment regarding expectations of improvement following his ascension to power in 2011.
With ongoing forced labor practices and rampant malnutrition, many escapees reported severe hardships, noting that three meals a day had become a rarity. During the COVID pandemic, the situation only deteriorated, leading to increased hunger and fatalities across North Korea.
While desires for a better quality of life have been obstructed, government crackdowns on informal markets further complicated efforts to survive economically.
This deterioration of conditions has led to calls for international intervention, as the UN urges the North Korean government to abolish its political prison camps, eliminate the death penalty, and foster human rights education.
