A report released Tuesday by the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) shows executions in North Korea surged during the COVID-19 pandemic for offenses including watching South Korean cultural content. Of 144 confirmed executions over Kim Jong-un's 13-year rule from 2011 to 2024, 65 occurred after the border closure at the pandemic's start. The findings draw from testimonies of 265 North Korean defectors and reporting by five media organizations with in-country contacts.
The TJWG report examines executions and death sentences in North Korea over Kim Jong-un's 13-year rule from 2011 to 2024. Executions declined from 2015 to 2019 amid heightened international scrutiny from the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea. They surged again after the COVID-19 border closure in 2020.
Over the following five years, executions and death sentences rose by 116.7 percent, with the number of individuals affected increasing by 247.7 percent. Executions linked to South Korean cultural content, including K-dramas, films and K-pop, as well as religious practices, surged by 250 percent after the border closure, the report said. Pyongyang enacted related legislation in 2020 and 2023.
The report identified 46 execution sites, including five within 10 kilometers of the headquarters of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, where Kim Jong-un's office is reportedly based. "As the regime pursues a 4th hereditary succession of power, there is a high risk of increased executions to strengthen cultural and ideological control and maintain political dominance," the report said.
