Executions for watching foreign TV among findings of North Korea report on intensifying punishments

Visitors watch North Korean side from the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

GENEVA -- Repression in North Korea has deepened across many areas, with heightened surveillance, expanded use of forced labour and more frequent executions, making it the most restrictive country in the world, a UN human rights report said on Friday.

The sweeping UN review comes over a decade after a landmark U.N. report found that North Korea had committed crimes against humanity. The new report, covering developments since 2014, is based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who fled the country and reported a further erosion of freedoms.

Surveillance has grown more pervasive with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher -- including the introduction of the death penalty for offenses such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said.

“Under laws, policies and practices introduced since 2015, citizens have been subjected to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life,” the 14-page UN report said in its conclusion. “No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” it said.

North Korea’s Geneva diplomatic mission and its London embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The DPRK said in response to UN rights investigators that it rejected a UN Human Rights Council resolution which authorized the latest report.

The report also found some limited improvements, such as reduced use of violence by guards in detention facilities, and new laws that appear to strengthen fair trial guarantees.

Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Josh Smith in Seoul, Editing by William Maclean, Reuters