North Korea has executed several citizens for distributing foreign television programmes, including South Korean dramas, as the regime intensifies its crackdown on personal freedoms.
A recent United Nations report found that sanctions had been tightened, including the introduction of the death penalty for anyone caught sharing foreign TV content.
The new restrictions make North Korea the most prohibitive country in the world, according to the report published on Friday, which is based on more than 300 interviews with witnesses and victims who have fled the country.
James Heenan, head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in North Korea, told a briefing in Geneva that the number of executions had risen since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Under laws, policies and practices introduced since 2015, citizens have been subjected to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life,” the report concludes.
North Korea’s diplomatic mission in Geneva and its embassy in London have not commented on the report.
