North Korea executed considerably more people since the COVID-19 pandemic than before, a new study by the South Korean human-rights NGO Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), revealed in a new investigation earlier this month.
Comparing executions in roughly five-year periods before and after the pandemic’s onset, the Seoul-based organization’s report on executions in North Korea revealed a sharp uptick: executions more than doubled, from 30 to 65.
Additionally, the group reported that the number of death sentences more than tripled, going from 44 to 153. Offenses before the pandemic were primarily murder. During the pandemic, however, offenses were categorized as cultural crimes—such as distributing or possessing foreign media—and information crimes—misusing or spreading prohibited information.
North Korean authorities impose severe restrictions on foreign cultural influences. Distributing South Korean movies, TV shows, or music, now classified as a cultural crime, can lead to execution. Possessing such materials can condemn a person to decades in labor camps. During the pandemic, cultural crimes became the leading cause for the execution of prisoners.
Moreover, the number of death sentences given to political prisoners, such as those who criticize the government, rose by 600% following the start of the pandemic, a statistic the report suggested may reflect a new strategy in Pyongyang to “suppress political discontent.”
The third-most common offense during the COVID-19 pandemic, just behind political crimes, was violation of movement control measures, with 28 people recorded executed.
Public executions serve as the ultimate means to terrorize the population into submission
TJWG used a variety of media reports outside of North Korea to reach its conclusions, as well as testimony from 880 North Korean escapees, and satellite data to help map and track execution sites.
In 2014, the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (COI DPRK) released a report concluding that systematic human rights violations in North Korea amount to crimes against humanity.
“Public executions and enforced disappearances to political prison camps serve as the ultimate means to terrorize the population into submission,” the report stated. Following the report, TJWG began working to document and map executions in the country.
TJWG found that from the beginning of Kim Jong-Un’s rule in 2011 to December 2024, at least 358 people were executed in 136 executions. These include public executions, mass executions, extrajudicial summary executions, and more.
Through satellite mapping, along with the use of personal testimonies, TJWG found that executions took place in open areas, universities, prison camps, and various other locations. Executions were mostly carried out using firearms, though hangings and the “use of blunt instruments (an iron mace and hammer)” were documented as well.