A human rights organization in Seoul released a report stating that North Korea significantly accelerated executions of its citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2024, particularly targeting offenses like consuming foreign cultural media such as South Korean series and music, to strengthen control and enforce strict ideology within the country.
The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a non-governmental organization based in Seoul, published its latest report revealing a sharp surge in execution statistics in North Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data from January 2020 to the end of 2024 show at least 153 people were executed or sentenced to death, a substantial increase compared to the five years before the pandemic (2015-2019), which recorded only 44 cases.
The report notes that executions had decreased between 2015 and 2019 due to international pressure after a United Nations inquiry found systemic human rights abuses by the North Korean government. However, the numbers sharply rose again in 2020 following North Korea's strict border closures. In 2020 alone, at least 54 executions occurred, with another 45 in 2021, contrasting starkly with the previous average of five per year.
One of the most common charges leading to execution involved "religion, superstition, and foreign cultural media," especially consuming entertainment from South Korea such as series and K-pop music.
Researchers indicate that the regime of Kim Jong Un views the spread of South Korean pop culture as a severe ideological threat. In 2024, a rare video surfaced showing two teenagers sentenced to 12 years of hard labor simply for watching and sharing South Korean series.
Other offenses punishable by death include criticizing Kim Jong Un or the Workers' Party, intentional murder, drug trafficking, and aiding others in escaping the country.
The TJWG report, based on interviews with over 250 North Korean defectors, states that from 2011 to 2024, a total of 358 people were executed, with over 70% carried out publicly, mostly by firing squad. The group has mapped more than 46 execution sites across the country.
A TJWG statement reads: "As the regime moves toward a fourth-generation hereditary succession, there is a high risk of increased executions to reinforce cultural and ideological control and secure political power."
Founded in Seoul in 2014 through collaboration among activists and researchers from South Korea, North Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, TJWG continuously monitors human rights abuses in North Korea.
/sourceBBC