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Sharp rise in executions during Covid-19 pandemic
A Seoul-based human rights organization has documented a significant increase in executions and death sentences in North Korea from 2020 to 2024, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic and the country's border closures.
Key findings from the report
The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) reported that at least 153 people were executed or sentenced to death between January 2020 and December 2024. This marks a stark rise compared to the 44 cases recorded in the five years prior to the pandemic.
Common offenses leading to executions
The most frequent reasons for executions or death sentences involved religion, superstition, and exposure to foreign cultural content, including South Korean K-dramas and K-pop. These accounted for 29 of the 144 documented cases during Kim Jong Un's rule.
In 2024, a rare video emerged showing two teenagers sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching and distributing K-dramas, highlighting the regime's strict control over cultural influences.
Historical context and trends
Executions peaked in the early years of Kim Jong Un's leadership, with over 80 people executed in 2013 alone. Following a 2014 UN inquiry that exposed systemic human rights abuses, the numbers temporarily declined, averaging five executions per year from 2016 to 2019.
However, executions surged again in 2020, with 54 people executed that year and 45 the following year, according to TJWG's findings.
Methods and public nature of executions
Of the 358 executions documented between 2011 and 2024, over 70% were carried out in public, primarily by shooting. The TJWG mapped 46 execution sites across North Korea used during Kim's rule.
Other offenses leading to executions included criticizing Kim or the ruling party, homicide, drug trafficking, and aiding defections.
Concerns over future trends
In a press release, TJWG warned that as North Korea prepares for a potential fourth hereditary succession of power, there is a heightened risk of increased executions to tighten ideological control and maintain political dominance.
"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."
Transitional Justice Working Group
About the Transitional Justice Working Group
The TJWG, established in Seoul in 2014, is composed of activists and researchers from South Korea, North Korea, the US, UK, and Canada. The group tracks human rights violations in North Korea and publishes regular reports on the use of the death penalty, relying on testimonies from over 250 North Korean defectors across 51 cities and counties.
