Legal framework

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea, is the world’s most closed, isolated, and repressive state, with one of the worst records for human rights. It is ruled by the only dictatorship in the world which is both a dynasty and portrays itself as a deity. 

There is no freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief in the DPRK, and any citizen who expresses an opinion or a belief which differs from the regime’s propaganda faces severe punishment. 

Commission of Inquiry

The gravity and extent of human rights abuses being perpetrated by the North Korean regime were exposed in the ground-breaking United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on human rights in the DPRK published in February 2014. It concluded that the ‘gravity, scale, and nature of the violations of human rights in North Korea reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world’ and recommended that the UN Security Council refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

The COI report detailed widespread crimes against humanity and noted that ‘there is an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.’ It concluded that the regime ‘considers the spread of Christianity a particularly severe threat’ and as a result, ‘Christians are prohibited from practising their religion and are persecuted.’ Severe punishments are inflicted on people ‘caught practising Christianity.’ Documented incidents include Christians being hung on a cross over a fire, crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges and trampled underfoot. 

In 2018 CSW’s North Korea report, ‘Movies, Markets and Mass Surveillance’, found that although the North Korean regime has not shown any signs of change in regard to human rights, increased flows of information into the country via radio broadcasts, DVDs, USB sticks and other means, as well as economic changes in the country, have resulted in a greater awareness among North Korean people about the outside world. The COI is also believed to have had some impact within the country, resulting in anecdotal reports of a reduction in the most severe violations. This was not interpreted as meaning that there had been any meaningful improvement in human rights in the DPRK, but it did highlight that international pressure and information flows need to be maintained and increased.

In July 2021 a report by the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the DPRK found that the situation of human rights in the country has not improved since the COI report and that the atrocities ‘amount to crimes against humanity.’ It states that ‘there are reasons to believe that some of the atrocities reach the threshold of genocide, particularly in relation to three groups: Christians, half-Chinese children, and the ‘hostile’ group.’

In September 2024 CSW’s North Korea report, ‘We cannot look away’, published to mark ten years since the publication of the COI’s report, found that the Kim regime has made no effort to uphold international human rights standards and has taken no steps to participate as an equal and active member of the international community. The situation of human rights in the country remains unchanged at best and may even have deteriorated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increased prioritisation of weapons testing and development, the introduction of new domestic legislation, and the continued forced repatriation of North Korean refugees from neighbouring China.

Prison camps

According to The Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean government agency, an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 people are detained in prison camps, where they endure dire living conditions and brutal torture. Many are Christians.

Defectors who are forcibly returned to the DPRK are charged with ‘treachery against the nation’, sent to prison camps and face abuse, violence and even execution. Despite this, the Chinese government has retained its policy of repatriating all North Korean defectors.

On 8 October 2013 South Korean missionary Kim Jung-wook was arrested by the DPRK’s State Security Department (renamed Ministry of State Security in 2016). Two other missionaries, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil, were arrested in October and December 2014 respectively. All three were charged with spying for South Korea and have been kept in incommunicado detention since their arrests. 

In January 2024 two teenage boys were sentenced to 16 years of hard labour for watching K-Dramas after a public trial in front of their classmates.

General remarks 

The DPRK was the first country in the world to close its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the last to re-open. This prolonged isolation only exacerbated food insecurity in the country and reduced virtually all legal and illegal trade in the country. 

The DPRK is using hackers to steal crypto currency to fund its nuclear projects, most notably through cells like the ‘Lazarus Group’. These groups were reported to have stolen at least 600 million dollars in 2023. In early 2025 the Lazarus Group was responsible for the biggest crypto heist in history, stealing USD 1.5 billion worth of digital tokens, of which they successfully converted at least USD 300 million to unrecoverable funds.

Kim Jong-Un has sold weapons to Putin to be used in the Ukraine War and North Korean labourers are being sent into Russia in increasing numbers to make up for the manpower shortage faced due to increasing levels on conscription in Russia.

Advocacy on the DPRK has been majorly impacted by funding cuts by the US government. Key human rights organisations, independent news sources, advocacy groups and organisations providing humanitarian assistance have been impacted. Some crucial organisations have ceased to exist entirely. This limits the accountability of the North Korean regime, including by limiting independent reporting from within the country and undermining the work of groups who are trying to support democratic freedoms at the grassroots and governmental levels.  

Recommendations

To the government of the DPRK:

• End the violent, targeted persecution of Christians across the nation.
• Implement the recommendations of the COI report in their entirety.
• Release all persons currently detained in prison camps immediately and unconditionally. 
• Stop charging defectors with ‘treachery’ or requesting that defectors into China and other countries be returned to the DPRK. 
• Clarify the fate and whereabouts of repatriated North Korean refugee Kim Cheol-ok and allow her to contact her family.
• Clarify the fate and whereabouts of missionaries Kim Jeong-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi-Chun-gil and allow them to contact their families, lawyers and consular officials. 
• Immediately return all abductees, detainees and unrepatriated POWs, including missionaries Kim Jeong-wook, Kim Kook-ki and Choi Chun-gil. 
• Uphold, in law and practice, freedom of religion or belief as stipulated in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). 
• End the violent, targeted persecution of Christians across the nation. 
• Implement the recommendations of the COI report in their entirety. 
• Invite the United States (US) Special Envoy for North Korea Human Rights, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, the European Union (EU) Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the DPRK, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and other UN Special Procedures and investigative mechanisms, to visit the country with unhindered access.

To the United Nations and Member States:

• Ensure that the human rights situation in the DPRK continues to be discussed annually at the UN, including at the UN Security Council, UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council, and separately from the question of nuclear non-proliferation.
• Urge the UN Security Council to refer the DPRK to the International Criminal Court, in line with the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations, and consider all unexplored judicial avenues for DPRK accountability, including possible proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 
• Support the implementation of all the recommendations of the UN COI report published in February 2014, provide technical assistance where possible to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) field office in Seoul and clarify and strengthen the OHCHR’s DPRK Accountability Project's mandate by requesting it to collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve information and evidence of the most serious crimes and violations of international law in the DPRK and to support relevant judicial and other proceedings.
• Consider sanctions against policymakers responsible for human rights abuses in the DPRK. 
• Urge all relevant UN mechanisms, including the Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies, to include the right to freedom of religion or belief in their reporting on the DPRK. 
• Provide asylum and sanctuary for North Korean asylum seekers and refugees in conformity with international obligations, particularly by taking active steps to prevent North Korean agents from carrying out abductions, desisting from repatriating North Koreans who have fled, allowing access to asylum procedures, and facilitating resettlement including providing psychosocial support. 
• During bilateral meetings with China, raise concerns about the repatriation of North Korean refugees, and call on China to cease doing so in line with its obligations under the Refugee Convention to which it is a party. 
• Urge the government of the DPRK, at every appropriate opportunity, to make the reforms highlighted in the recommendation section above ‘To the government of the DPRK’.

To the European Union and Member States:

• In engagements with China and relevant ASEAN partners, urge that they respect the principle of non-refoulement and extend asylum and other means of durable protection to persons fleeing the DPRK.
• Provide medium and long-term funding to civil society organisations working on human rights and the promotion of democracy in North Korea, particularly those seeking to document violations and to make such documentation available as evidence to be used in legal proceedings.
• Consider the extension of targeted sanctions against policymakers and officials responsible for human rights abuses in the DPRK.
• The EU Special Representative for Human Rights, and the EU Special Envoy for FoRB, should request an invitation to visit the DPRK with unhindered access to all parts of the country.
• Urge the government of the DPRK, at every appropriate opportunity, to make the reforms highlighted in the recommendation section above ‘To the government of the DPRK’.

To the government of the United Kingdom:

• Demand an end to the persecution of religious minorities in the DPRK, ensuring that individuals imprisoned for their faith are released, and monitor violations through UN mechanisms.
• Pressure China and other countries to cease the forced repatriation of defectors and provide resettlement opportunities for refugees fleeing persecution.
• Address the DPRK’s forced labour practices, particularly abroad, and target the regime's illicit financial activities, including cyber-attacks.
• Lead international efforts to refer the DPRK to the ICC by rallying support within the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly, based on the findings of the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry. Expand UK Magnitsky-style sanctions to include senior officials directly responsible for crimes against humanity and the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.
• Ensure that FoRB, along with other egregious human rights abuses, remains a standing priority in UK foreign policy toward the DPRK, especially during any multilateral or backchannel discussions. Consistently raise DPRK human rights violations with China and Russia, including the forced repatriation of defectors, urging compliance with international refugee law.
• Ensure the UK asylum system remains open to North Korean refugees fleeing persecution, with particular attention to those targeted for religious belief or defection. Publicly condemn China’s forced repatriations and collaborate with like-minded governments to offer durable resettlement solutions and psychosocial support for survivors of abuse, especially religious minorities. 

To the government of the United States: 

• The State Department and the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) should continue to closely monitor FoRB in the DPRK and maintain the country as a Country of Particular Concern. 
• The Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and USCIRF should request an invitation to visit the DPRK with unhindered access to all parts of the country. 
• Deny US visas to North Korean government officials directly responsible for FoRB violations. 
• In engagements with China and relevant ASEAN partners, urge that they respect the principle of non-refoulement and extend asylum and other means of durable protection to persons fleeing the DPRK.
• Provide medium and long-term funding to civil society organisations working on human rights and the promotion of democracy in North Korea, particularly those seeking to document violations and to make such documentation available as evidence to be used in legal proceedings.
• Consider the extension of targeted sanctions against policymakers and officials responsible for human rights abuses in the DPRK.

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