North Korea dramatically escalated its use of capital punishment during COVID-19 border restrictions, with the majority of death sentences connected to consuming prohibited foreign entertainment and religious activities, according to a human rights organization based in Seoul.
Research conducted by the Transitional Justice Working Group reveals that 148 individuals were executed in 60 separate incidents from 2020 through 2024, representing a significant jump from 41 death penalty cases during the preceding five-year span.
The organization compiled its findings through conversations with 880 North Korean refugees currently residing in South Korea and utilized satellite imagery to identify locations where executions took place. Researchers emphasized that their data should not be viewed as comprehensive.
Violations involving foreign cultural content and religious practices, such as viewing South Korean television programs and films, represented the highest percentage of execution cases, the study found.
Prior to pandemic restrictions, homicide had been the primary offense leading to death sentences.
Political crimes resulting in executions climbed to 28 cases from just four during the comparable earlier timeframe, as leader Kim Jong Un intensified efforts to suppress opposition during isolation measures.
Cultural offense executions also took place in the nation’s interior regions rather than solely near the Chinese border, indicating South Korean entertainment had penetrated across the entire country, according to Hubert Lee, who serves as the organization’s executive director.
North Korea has gradually begun loosening restrictions and permitted the 2023 return of citizens who had been overseas, while recently restoring passenger rail connections with China.
However, the count of North Korean defectors, which serves as a measure of the country’s external engagement, stayed minimal at 223 in 2025, down from 1,275 recorded in 2015, based on South Korean official statistics.
The expected leadership transition to Kim’s daughter, identified as Ju Ae, might also lead to increased executions, Lee suggested.
“The number of executions may surge when the time for Ju Ae to succeed is imminent, to remove the inner circle of her father and appoint her people,” Lee stated.
North Korean diplomatic missions in Singapore and London, along with Pyongyang’s permanent United Nations office, did not provide immediate responses to requests for comment regarding the report’s conclusions.
