North Korea: ‘Lost Decade’ of Rights Abuses

(New York) – A new United Nations report finds that the North Korean government has increased the use of surveillance, forced labor, and severe punishments over the past decade, maintaining “total control” over its population, Human Rights Watch said today.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued the report on September 12, 2025. It confirms many findings made by Human Rights Watch in its 2024 report, “A Sense of Terror Stronger than a Bullet: The Closing of North Korea 2018-2023.” The UN report was mandated by a 2024 Human Rights Council resolution on North Korea on the 10th anniversary of the landmark 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report, which documented decades of past crimes against humanity and other atrocities.

The new report, which focuses on abuses committed under totalitarian leader Kim Jong Un since 2014, will be presented to the Human Rights Council on September 22. In a statement released with the report, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said that, “what we have witnessed is a lost decade.” “Pervasive surveillance, repression, threats, hunger, and pain define the daily lives of millions of North Koreans,” said Lina Yoon, senior Koreas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This report should be a wake-up call for governments everywhere to refocus attention on one of the world’s worst human rights crises.” The report found that the government has continued using the death penalty for “anti-State activities,” and expanded its use to punish human trafficking, pornography, drug-related crimes, sex work, distribution of unauthorized media, and “economic crimes.” The report underscored an urgent need for donor governments to provide new financial and political support for civil society organizations working on North Korea, Human Rights Watch said. Several groups have faced major funding cuts by the United States, threatening their ability to continue to document abuses, gather information inside North Korea, and send messages and media into North Korea to counter the government’s authoritarian control of information.

The report highlights the government’s intensifying control over media and information. “All media is controlled by the Government and any independent news or opinion piece contrary to the State’s official position is treated as ‘counter-revolutionary’ and as a punishable crime under the country’s broadcasting and publishing laws,” the report states. “There are no independent civil society organizations.” The population is increasingly subject to threats, “unremitting propaganda,” and indoctrination sessions meant to reinforce loyalty and suppress dissent. Citizens are required to join party-led mass organizations that propagate government ideology, undertake surveillance, and mobilize people for forced labor. “Every person is required to participate in weekly self-criticism sessions, primarily aimed at collective surveillance and indoctrination.” An escapee cited in the report said: “To block the people’s eyes and ears, they strengthened the crackdowns. It was a form of control aimed at eliminating even the smallest signs of dissatisfaction or complaint.” The report concludes that “No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world.” Based on hundreds of interviews and reviews of other information and supporting documents, the report also described the devastating impact of the government’s self-imposed isolation since 2018, which has severely and negatively impacted the economy and access to food. State policies restricting markets and movement have exacerbated hunger, violating the right to food. Hunger “has been a constant feature of people’s lives over the past decade,” the report says.

The report also notes that numerous cases of foreign nationals abducted in the 1970s and 1980s, including many Japanese and South Koreans, remain unresolved. Many of the OHCHR’s findings corroborate Human Rights Watch research, including on Covid-19 linked repression and the Human Rights Watch report from March 2024, “A Sense of Terror Stronger than a Bullet: The Closing of North Korea 2018-2023” which documented the government’s increased repression of the population between 2018 and 2023, including the closure of the border and the imposition of harsh new laws and punishments and restrictions on movement. “People are less able to bribe their way out of arbitrary punishments,” according to the UN report. “The right to freely leave, return, and move inside one’s own country has become more limited.” These limitations have had devastating impacts on economic, social, and cultural rights. Freedom of religion remains “extremely curtailed,” the UN report says, and discrimination “continues to pervade society.” Despite official claims of gender equality, the report highlights serious problems, including widespread “sexual and gender-based violence in both public and private spheres.” While the UN report acknowledges “nominal” improvements in detention conditions and the ratification of two additional human rights treaties, it notes that the human rights situation “has not improved overall since 2014 and, in many instances, has degraded.” The majority of the 19 recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry in 2014, the report says, have not been implemented. “The profound institutional reform recommended by the commission has not materialized,” the report states, adding that in some areas, human rights conditions have grown “markedly worse.” The report urges other governments to prioritize international justice mechanisms to address the North Korean government’s crimes, including by referring the situation to the International Criminal Court. It also draws attention to governments’ obligations to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, ensuring that North Korean escapees are not forcibly returned to North Korea against their will. It further calls on governments to take steps to ensure that sanctions against North Korea’s government do not undermine the rights and survival of ordinary people. In line with the recommendations, governments should support and strengthen UN mechanisms engaged in monitoring and documentation of violations to ensure that evidence and information are preserved for future accountability processes.

The report also urges governments to ensure that engagement and diplomacy with North Korea should not separate or neglect human rights issues in broader discussions of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. “Inaction is inexcusable,” Yoon said. “The North Korean people should not have to endure another ‘lost decade’ of suffocating restrictions, systemic hunger, and the denial of almost all their human rights.”.

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References:

• https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc6058-situation-human-rights-democratic-peoples-republic-korea-report
• https://www.hrw.org/asia/north-korea
• https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/03/07/a-sense-of-terror/stronger-than-a-bullet-the-closing-of-north-korea-2018%E2%80%932023
• https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/08/un-rights-council-boosts-scrutiny-north-korea
• https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/17/north-korea-un-should-act-atrocities-report
• https://www.hrw.org/about/people/lina-yoon
• https://www.hrw.org/asia/japan
• https://www.hrw.org/asia/south-korea
• https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/05/north-korea-escapees-describe-covid-linked-repression