Pyongyang, September 14: North Korea has intensified its crackdown on personal freedoms, including executing citizens for distributing foreign media such as popular South Korean television dramas, according to a new United Nations human rights report released on Friday. The 14-page document, based on interviews with more than 300 escapees and victims, describes the country as “the most restrictive in the world” and highlights a sharp escalation in surveillance and punishments since 2014.

The report notes that new laws introduced after 2015 expanded the scope of state control, including the death penalty for offences like sharing K-dramas, which remain highly popular among citizens despite bans, reported Reuters. James Heenan, head of the UN human rights office for North Korea, told reporters in Geneva that executions for both political and ordinary crimes have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. While the exact number of executions remains unspecified, Heenan confirmed that some individuals have already been put to death under these laws. North Korea Starts to Send All Divorced Couples to Labour Training Camps to ‘Stabilise Social Order’.

In addition, the UN documented widespread forced labour, including the use of so-called “shock brigades,” where children from disadvantaged backgrounds are compelled to work in hazardous sectors such as coal mining and construction. These practices disproportionately target families unable to pay bribes to avoid such assignments. North Korea: Russian Tourist Secretly Films Pyongyang at Night With iPhone 16, Video Goes Viral.

Despite these grim findings, the report also pointed to limited improvements, including a reduction in violence by guards in detention facilities and the introduction of new laws that appear to bolster fair trial guarantees. However, the overall trajectory, according to UN investigators, indicates an erosion of fundamental freedoms under Kim Jong-un’s rule.

North Korea has dismissed the UN Human Rights Council’s mandate for the review and declined to respond to requests for comment from its Geneva and London missions. The latest report comes more than a decade after a landmark UN inquiry accused Pyongyang of crimes against humanity.

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