A new level of savagery has surpassed its status Kim Jong Un to North Korea: According to the UN High Commissioner report on Human Rights, which has been transmitted by the BBC, the death penalty is now imposed on those arrested to watch or transmit foreign audiovisual material, such as films or South Korean dramas.
Witnesses who escaped Kim Jong Un regime in North Korea describe public executions with executive excerpts designed to sow terror. Kang Giuri, who fled in 2023, revealed that her three friends were executed because they were in possession of South Korean programs: “They were tried with drug dealers. These crimes are now treated in the same way. “
Since 2015, at least six new laws provide for the death penalty for such cases. Increased rigor is, according to the UN, aiming to cut the population from any information coming from abroad.
A people hungry and under constant surveillance
The exhibition, based on more than 300 testimonies of North Korean refugees of the last decade, describes a daily life dominated by fear, hunger and forced labor. Having three meals a day is considered a “luxury”, and during the Covid pandemic many died of hunger.
At the same time, the authorities limited the operation of informal markets, vital to families, and reinforced border guarding, even ordered to shoot those who attempt to escape.
Technological progress is now being used to enhance monitoring, turning North Korean society into “one of the most controlled in the world,” the UN stresses.
Camps, forced labor and “worship of sacrifice”
The report also reveals that the use of forced labor has intensified: Thousands of people, including orphaned street children, are recruited in “shock brigades” for dangerous projects, such as construction and mines. The deaths of workers are presented as glorious “sacrifices” to Kim Jong Un.
At the same time, at least four political camps remain in operation. Prisoners have torture, deprivation and malnutrition. Survivors testify that they have seen detainees die of mistreatment, although the UN records a “slight reduction” in the violence of the prisoners.
Call for international justice
High Commissioner Volker Turk warns that, if the situation continues, the North Koreans “will continue to suffer pain, violent repression and fear”. The UN calls for the closure of camps, the abolition of the death penalty and the education of citizens in human rights.
However, to refer the case to the Hague International Criminal Court requires a UN Security Council ruling. Since 2019, China and Russia are blocking any attempt to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.
Last week, Kim Jong Un appeared next to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jing at a military parade in Beijing, a clear sign of silent support of the two forces.
According to the BBC, this new UN report underlines the urgent need for international action towards a regime that is increasingly silenced by its citizens.