
North Korea is one of the world’s most repressive states, where civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. The government restricts all civil and political liberties for its citizens, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and religion. It prohibits all organised political opposition, independent media, civil society and trade unions.
According to Human Rights Watch, in 2024, North Korea maintained extreme and unnecessary measures under the pretext of COVID-19 protection. The government cracked down on those accessing unsanctioned content, particular of South Korean origin. It jammed Chinese mobile phone services at the border, and arrested people for communicating with contacts outside the country. The government also tightly restricted freedom of movement.
In November 2024, the UN General Assembly committee passed a resolution on North Korean human rights for the 20th consecutive year, calling for the UN system as a whole to continue to address the North's "grave" situation "in a coordinated and unified manner." The Third Committee handling human rights and social affairs adopted by consensus the resolution, which called on North Korea to repeal its practices and laws that suppress people's freedom of thought, expression and religion.
North Korea’s human rights record was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council in December 2024 as part of its Universal Periodic Recommendations (UPR), where it received 206 recommendations including on civic space. Among the recommendations by UN members states was to ratify key human rights treaties, facilitate the prompt return of UN agencies and other humanitarian actors and take the necessary legislative measures to guarantee the full exercise of the freedoms of expression, assembly and association and the right to information. There were also recommendations to release all political prisoners, to decriminalise political dissent and opposition to the state and to cease the use of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment in places of detention.
In recent months, the authorities have continued to impose harsh punishments on individuals including executions for accessing foreign media and there has been an ongoing crackdown on cross-border communications. Implementation of the restrictive anti-reactionary law has been marked by serious violations, while surveillance of phone conversations and residents has persisted. There were arrests for criticism of the sister of regime leader, Kim Jong Un.
Expression
Harsh punishment for accessing foreign media
The regime has continued to crack down on foreign media content with harsh punishments including imposing executions.
In early September 2024, two 15-year-old North Korean boys were sent to a political prison camp for listening to K-pop. Their arrest came after a classmate reported them to state security agents. The punishment was particularly severe because the boys had not only listened to the music but had also shared it with others. Both sets of parents were also sent to concentration camps – effectively a life sentence – for failing to properly raise their children.
In October 2024, the Military Security Command, the North Korean military’s counterintelligence agency, circulated a report detailing cases of illegal handling of foreign media within the organisation over the past year.
Following this, a public trial was held in a military front-line unit in Kaepung county. Nine male soldiers in their 20s, investigated between June and early October 2024 for handling foreign media, stood trial. During the trial, seven soldiers were convicted of distributing illegal videos and sentenced to dishonorable discharge and prison terms of up to ten years and six months. Two others, identified as ringleaders in circulating unauthorised foreign-made electronic devices, received death sentences. The seven incarcerated soldiers were immediately sent to prison, while the two sentenced to death were executed at the unit’s firing range the following day.
Ongoing crackdown on cross-border communications
In October 2024, the regime launched a crackdown on smuggled Chinese-made smartwatches that can connect to Chinese mobile networks using USIM cards. Authorities are targeting users of the devices, which can make calls and send messages when equipped with Chinese telecom USIM cards, after they were smuggled into the country via Sinuiju.
In the same month, authorities intensified their crackdown on cross-border communications, threatening residents in border regions with reeducation camp sentences for any overseas phone calls. The penalties are especially harsh for contacting South Korea, with Ministry of State Security officials delivering stern warnings during neighbourhood lectures. Those who borrowed phones to call South Korea now face the risk of reeducation camps.
In November 2024, authorities initiated a major crackdown on users of Chinese phones in North Hamgyong province, deploying state security teams to Hoeryong to enforce the ban. Hoeryong, a city on the border with China, is home to many people who use Chinese phones for business, either arranging imports or handling remittances from defectors in South Korea for commission. The dozen or so enforcers sent by North Hamgyong province’s state security bureau operate phone signal detectors at various times and locations to hunt down people using Chinese phones.
Along the border, Ministry of State Security radar units use specialised equipment to track specific frequencies and signals, enabling real-time detection of calls to China. When agents detect Chinese telecommunications frequencies in residential areas, they immediately raid the suspected location.
Implementation of restrictive anti-reactionary law marked by serious violations
On 17th January 2025, Daily NK released a comprehensive report examining how North Korea’s “Anti-Reactionary Thought Law” is severely restricting citizens’ basic rights and daily lives. The report, titled “Suppressing Foreign Influence: The Impact of the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law on North Korean society,” provides an in-depth analysis of the law’s implementation and its effects on the North Korean population.
The findings reveal that since the law’s enactment, the regime has expanded both enforcement agencies and their jurisdiction, extending control into citizens’ everyday activities. The report highlights that most citizens have received no formal education about the law’s provisions or their rights and are subjected to state-driven ideological instructions that have instilled a deep-seated fear of punishment.
The implementation of the law has been marked by widespread procedural violations, with authorities frequently conducting arrests and carrying out punishments without warrants, failing to notify families, or providing access to legal representation. The system is further corrupted by enforcement officials who routinely accept bribes and make arbitrary decisions, seriously undermining any semblance of fair application.
Three repressive laws extended to workers abroad
North Korea is strictly enforcing three recently enacted laws on its citizens working abroad: the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law, the Youth Education Guarantee Act, and the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law. These regulations are severely restricting North Koreans’ freedoms, both at home and abroad.
An investigation in October 2024 into Chinese seafood factories by Daily NK found that North Korean workers are strictly prohibited from reading South Korean books or viewing South Korean videos or photographs in their dormitories. American and Japanese media are also prohibited, as is Chinese media that is considered non-socialist or anti-socialist in content.
Workers who violate these rules face serious consequences under North Korean overseas labour regulations. This push coincides with North Korea’s recent constitutional amendment declaring South Korea a hostile state.
Surveillance of phone conversations and residents
The web of surveillance of citizens by the regime has also persisted. In October 2024, the Ministry of State Security ordered the compilation of transcripts of recorded public telephone conversations to gauge public sentiment. The directive, which covers calls from July to September 2024, is aimed at determining everyday trends among citizens as part of the regime’s surveillance efforts.
As cell phone use in the country has steadily increased, authorities have focused their surveillance on individual cell phones, and people have recently begun using public phones to have important conversations without the state listening in. In response, North Korea’s state security agencies have established surveillance systems in the public phone management teams of local communications offices and actively use transcripts of recorded public phone conversations to monitor public trends.
In January 2025, Daily NK reported that in North Pyongan province, police boxes, which form the lowest tier of North Korea’s public security system, monitor households in their jurisdictions and track resident movements. In Sinuiju, the capital of North Pyongan Province, police box officers have increased their monitoring of residents, using informants to document daily activities in minute detail.
Arrests for criticism of regime leader’s sister
In November 2024, two Haeju residents were detained by the Ministry of State Security for allegedly making critical comments in private conversation about Kim Yo Jong’s statement regarding drones over Pyongyang. She is the sister of regime leader Kim Jong Un.
Their private conversation was overheard by an informer for the local branch of the Ministry of State Security. In private conversation, they expressed concern about tensions with South Korea. The two people also expressed opinions about the North Korean government’s erasing of the concepts of “unification” and “nation” in propaganda materials.