Pyongyang has executed people for distributing foreign media, including television shows like popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said.
Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher – including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said Friday.
The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had fled the country and reported the further erosion of freedoms.
James Heenan, head of the UN human rights office for North Korea, told a Geneva briefing that the number of executions for both normal and political crimes had increased since the Covid-19 era restrictions.
An unspecified number of people have already been executed under the new laws for distributing foreign TV series, including the popular K-Dramas from its southern neighbour, he added.
“Citizens have been subjected to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life,” the report’s conclusion said. — Reuters
