North Korea dramatically increased its use of the death penalty after closing its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic, using its isolation to escalate killings when international scrutiny disappeared, according to a report mapping 13 years of executions under the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
The number of documented cases of executions and death sentences increased by 117% in the nearly five years after North Korea sealed its borders in January 2020 compared with an equal period before the closure, according to a report by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a human rights NGO in Seoul.
The number of people executed or sentenced to death more than tripled, it added.
The report identified 46 execution sites and disclosed coordinates for 40 of them. It also documented 144 cases, including 136 execution events involving at least 358 individuals between December 2011, when Kim became leader, and December 2024, with about 70% of executions carried out publicly with crowds forced to watch.
The report was compiled based on testimony from 265 North Korean defectors who had lived in 51 cities and countries during the 13-year period, as well as information from five North Korea-focused media outlets with sources inside the country.
North Korea closed its borders to nearly all trade and visitors at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, isolating itself from the outside world.
The report claims that the regime exploited the pandemic – and the lack of international scrutiny – to expand the number of “crimes” that carried the death penalty.
Cases of death sentences or executions linked to the use, introduction or dissemination of foreign culture and information, including South Korean films, dramas and music, as well as religious and “superstitious” practices, surged by 250% to become the most common capital offences. Executions and death sentences for people found guilty of murder – previously the most frequent capital crime – fell by 44%.
Those claims echoed previous reports citing a rise in punishments, including execution for watching South Korean TV shows or listening to K-pop.
In February, Amnesty International said it had obtained testimonies indicating that watching global K-drama hits such as Crash Landing on You and Squid Game, or listening to K-pop bands such as BTS, could “lead to the most extreme punishments, including death”.
Citing testimony from people who had recently fled North Korea, Amnesty said the regime had created “a climate of fear” in which consumption of South Korean culture was treated as a serious crime.
The TJWG report said political executions for violating Kim’s orders or criticising the leader, the ruling Workers’ party or security services had increased sharply, with the number of condemned individuals up 600%.
According to the TJWG report, the North Korean leadership adapted its approach to capital punishment depending on levels of international pressure. Executions declined sharply, for example, in the years following UN discussions about referring Kim to the international criminal court in The Hague.
The executions also spread geographically during the pandemic. Before Covid, documented executions occurred in eight localities, mostly concentrated in Pyongyang and three north-eastern provinces along the Chinese border. After the border closure, they expanded to 19 localities.
Ethan Hee-seok Shin, a legal analyst at the TJWG, called on the international community to do more to “deter and punish this crime against humanity” and “hold those responsible to account under international criminal law”.
In a press release, the TJWG warned that executions might intensify as the regime prepared for a fourth-generation hereditary succession, with Kim’s teenage daughter, understood to be called Ju-ae, being positioned as his heir apparent.
The TJWG plans to present the findings at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris this summer.
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