- People who have escaped from North Korea since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have described severe repression and restrictions on economic activity.
- North Korean escapees’ accounts illustrate the devastating impact of the government’s oppressive Covid-19 measures that further shrank people’s already limited freedoms.
- The UN Human Rights Council should renew the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on North Korea and update the mandate of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for North Korea investigation.
(Seoul) – People who have escaped from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have described the government’s severe repression and restrictions on economic activity since the pandemic, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) and Human Rights Watch said today. Concerned governments should increase support for accountability measures and civil society groups that advocate for the rights of North Koreans.
Eight North Koreans living abroad told TJWG and Human Rights Watch about the country’s grave human rights and humanitarian situation. All described a lack of information about Covid-19; restrictions on movement; and limited access to food, medicine, and products like fertilizer, soap, or batteries after the government sealed its borders in 2020. They also said that the government intensified its ideological control and surveillance, targeting people for seeking out foreign media, and failed to adopt measures to mitigate the economic impact of its restrictions.
“North Korean escapees’ accounts illustrate the devastating impact of the government’s oppressive Covid-19 measures that further shrank the already limited freedoms of ordinary people,” said Seungju Lee, profiler at TJWG. “Concerned governments need to refocus on the humanitarian crisis in North Korea and champion accountability measures for abuses.”
Between March 2024 and February 2025, TJWG and Human Rights Watch interviewed three men and five women from various regions of North Korea who escaped the country between 2020 and 2023. They included five traders, two fishermen, and a factory worker. All but one agreed to speak on condition that their real names would not be used to protect their families in North Korea.
This analysis draws from broader research between 2014 and 2023 and interviews with 147 North Koreans outside the country, including 32 with relevant knowledge of recent conditions. While not a comprehensive sample, the diversity in age, gender, region, social class, and background of those interviewed reflect the general views of people who fled the country at that time.
The accounts are consistent with the findings of Human Rights Watch’s March 2024 report, “‘A Sense of Terror Stronger than a Bullet’: The Closing of North Korea 2018–2023.” Human Rights Watch found that North Korea put in place excessive and unnecessary measures during the Covid-19 pandemic that made the already isolated country even more repressive. Restrictions on leaving North Korea under the pretense of defending against Covid-19, including a standing order for border guards to “shoot on sight” anyone trying to leave the country through its northern border without permission, made escape nearly impossible. The measures also harmed the economy and eroded social and economic rights.
Even before the pandemic, North Korea was among the world’s most repressive and isolated countries, severely controlling information, movement, and daily life. Decades of government policies prioritizing militarization and weapons programs over social welfare left the people of North Korea, also among the world’s poorest countries, suffering from widespread chronic food insecurity and malnutrition.
A fisherman from a remote area said that the government’s “Covid-19 [measures] blocked my access to the sea, so I decided to escape…. [In late 2020] a few people went [fishing] … but one got caught.” He said the authorities wrote “traitor” on a piece of paper and nailed it to the door of the man’s home, saying: “Do not approach.” He said the authorities sent the captured fisherman to a long-term hard labor prison camp (kyohwaso, literally “reform through labor center”).
The people interviewed talked about increased repression, fear, and ideological control. Several said there had been an increase in public executions since 2020. Kim Il Hyuk, a rice trader from South Hwanghae province who left North Korea in May 2023, said he saw no executions between 2012 and 2019, but that changed in 2020. “I saw people shot every two months in 2020,” he said. “In 2022 and 2023, there were three executions by firing squad every two months.”
The government’s intensified restrictions after 2020, combined with its persistent control of the population through fear, exacerbated the already horrendous human rights situation, the organizations said. Many government actions reversed the relative loosening of control in previous years through informal cross-border movement and trade, unregulated private market activity, domestic travel without permits, and access to unauthorized foreign media.
North Korea continues to reject the overwhelming evidence of systematic violations. In November 2024, it dismissed the annual United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on North Korean human rights as “political provocation.” In response to its UN Universal Periodic Review in November 2024, North Korea claimed “remarkable achievements” in its fulfillment of rights, while emphasizing its Covid-19 measures. Yet, under the rule of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean government has become increasingly sensitive to criticism of its human rights record.
At the same time, North Korean human rights groups working outside of the country are facing serious funding cuts. Concerned governments should provide support for these organizations to expand access to independent information, support North Koreans who have fled the country, document abuses, and advocate for justice.
The UN Human Rights Council should renew the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea and update the mandate of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on accountability for grave abuses in North Korea at its current 58th session. The council resolution on North Korea should also call for further investigation of the link between weapons development, militarization, and human rights violations in North Korea.
“North Korea’s government exploited the Covid-19 pandemic to tighten control and suppression of its population, leaving people to starve while strengthening its grip on power,” said Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The international community should press for accountability and strongly support organizations working to protect the rights of North Koreans.”
Personal details are anonymized to protect the interviewees’ identities and their families in North Korea.
Covid-19 and Respect for Human Rights
North Korea is party to a number of core international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Right to Work and to an Adequate Standard of Living
Before 2019, insufficient domestic food production and manufacturing forced many North Koreans to obtain food and other items such as soap, toothpaste, and underwear via formal and informal trade with China and private market activity, in many cases conducted without government permission. After the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government strictly limited official cross-border trade, cracked down on informal trade, controlled domestic travel, curtailed unsanctioned private commercial activity, and shortened market hours in an economy already affected by sectorial UN sanctions imposed in 2016 and 2017.
The North Koreans interviewed discussed the difficulties of trading and making money. K. Ah Young, a factory worker from a northern province, said it became impossible to earn enough to survive after 2020. She used to knit hats to sell to China and that stopped with the pandemic. “Except for private lot farming, everything else stopped or was extremely limited with Covid-19,” she said. “Around July and August, people [in my region] used go to the mountains [to make money picking fruits, medicinal herbs, or roots]. This also stopped with Covid-19.”
Kim Il Hyuk, a rice trader, said:
The food situation in North Korea quickly became worse after 2022.… During the pandemic, the North Korean government tightened control over businesses in our area and blocked the distribution of goods, so the food situation quickly deteriorated. The state severely punished individuals for selling food, saying that they were traitors. I had been selling food such as rice and corn at the time, but I stopped because I was afraid.… After the state prevented private grain sales in the market, food prices skyrocketed, and some people began to starve to death…. In spring 2023 … I saw a [apparently dead] man lying on the roadside. Villagers said that he had been lying there for over a day…. There were many cases like that.
P. Young Chul, a fisherman from a remote area, said that the authorities banned fishing because of Covid-19. He said he was not surprised because they had banned fishing for various reasons before. “I thought the ban would get lifted after one or two months … But by mid-2020, people around me started selling their possessions. [One friend] sold his TV at a very cheap price, and other expensive things at half the price, because he didn’t have anything to eat.” He said:
People [where I lived] sold products from the sea and from that [we] bought clothes and food, and that’s how the markets operated. The main sources were the natural resources of the sea and the mountain. As work and trade of all such products were blocked, there could not be any trade…. I realized the situation was very serious. I looked at the state of my house. I am a big guy, and I eat a lot. My mother does not eat much. I started thinking of the amount I ate, and how much more I could eat without making any money, and I realized we didn’t have that much. I thought that soon, we would also need to start selling our possessions.
Il Hyuk said his brother was also a fisherman and was blocked from going to sea from February 2020 until they both escaped in May 2023. His family suffered, as fishing was his main source of income.
L. Hye Kyung, a fruit trader from an urban area, said she did well before Covid-19 selling fruit, but sales stopped almost completely. “I was still able to make some money, but life was harder,” she said. “I had to be more cautious about my spending. Before Covid-19, I used to buy a whole tin can of cooking oil, but I started buying smaller bottles.”
These measures harmed ordinary North Koreans’ ability to engage in economic activities, including trade. This further restricted their rights to work and to earn an income, harming in turn other economic, social, and cultural rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, and the right to health.
Access to Food, Medicine, and Imported Products
During the pandemic, North Korea’s strict border controls and rejection of international vaccine assistance deepened its health and economic crises. Despite Covid-19 vaccine offers from COVAX, the global initiative to expand vaccine access, South Korea, and Russia in 2021 and 2022, the government rejected them or failed to arrange shipments, leaving much of the population unvaccinated. Media reported that between August and October 2022, there was a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in areas bordering China and southern cities like Pyongyang and Nampo. But none of those interviewed received a Covid-19 vaccination.
All those interviewed said the biggest concern of ordinary people was rising prices, particularly for food. Two said they did not buy anything except food until they left the country. Ah Young, the factory worker, said:
[Almost everything] even toothpicks are imported from China. With trade with China blocked, prices of all imports soared…. Sugar and MSG went up highest and fastest, and cooking oil doubled within a few months. Only goods that had gone into the country before the border closure were available…. Only those who had a lot of products made a lot of money. People who didn’t have products or money had a very hard time, they couldn’t get any [money or food].
Young Chul, the fisherman, said he heard of people who ran out of money and were going hungry. “My next-door neighbor used to go to another person’s house to clean and cook, but that was not necessary after Covid-19 because everybody was at home,” he said. “In the summer of 2020, they once came to our home to eat because of their difficult situation, but we did not have that much either. Later, they got some money from relatives.”
Il Hyuk, the rice trader who saw dozens of public executions in Pyoksong county, South Hwanghae province between 2020 and 2023, said:
As food became scarce … violent crime increased, like entering the home of an elderly person living alone and stabbing them to death while trying to steal food or money or stealing food from a passing cyclist. Robberies resulting in accidental deaths became more common since there was nothing to eat in North Korea. Officials used these cases to increase fear and control the population, because of the hardship…. Ninety percent of the public executions I saw were for these types of violent crimes.
Those interviewed also described rising medicine prices and difficulty finding medicine. Several said they could not buy any medicine after 2020. “My mother needed medicine, but it was difficult to find, so she only used traditional medicine treatments like moxibustion, using dried mugwort leaves, and acupuncture,” said Young Chul. “But when people are not making any money … the biggest concern is still food.”
“Finding medicine was like picking a star from the sky,” said Hye Kyung, the fruit trader. She described economic hardships affecting people’s daily lives:
When the economy is bad, people stop cutting their hair, you can quickly see that on men. In 2021 and 2022, many people in my area could not eat because they could not even buy [the cheapest staple] corn flour.… In my house, all [battery] wall clocks stopped working [a year after the border closure]…. They were dead until the day I left.
Il Hyuk said that because batteries were not available, his wall clock also stopped at the end of 2020 until he left in May 2023, so he had to use his cell phone clock. He said asking for the time became a greeting in the streets. “People in the street that I didn’t know would ask me, ‘Excuse me, would it be possible to know what time it is?’” he said, adding that he took his cellphone out about 100 times a day. As he was wealthier and had grain at home for trading, the authorities took away his grain. He said:
North Korea was not a place where people could live as human beings … In the fall of 2020, [police officers came to my house and] took my grain. When I asked why … they said: “You bastard, do you own anything on this earth? The ground you stand on does not belong to you, even the air you breath belongs to the [Workers’] Party [of Korea].” … I knew if I resisted … I could be taken away as a political prisoner…. They searched my home and confiscated all my food.
Rights to Information and Freedom of Expression
The North Korean government has always heavily restricted freedom of thought, opinion, expression, religion, and access to information. Since 2020, the authorities have ramped up ideological campaigns, passed laws, and implemented policies to further control expression and information, including about Covid-19. They have suppressed information from abroad domestically and about developments inside North Korea overseas.
In 2020, the government claimed Covid-19 could spread through surfaces of trade products, migratory birds and animals, snow, and “yellow dust” from China. It continued promoting these claims long after the international community rebutted them. Since August 2020, North Korea has used Covid-19 as a pretext for a shoot-on-sight order on the northern border “as the pandemic is being spread through air and items.”
None of the people interviewed said they could access accurate scientific or other information about Covid-19. “In meetings at the People’s Unit [Inminban or neighborhood watch units], they told us to be careful, not to meet in groups, not to sit next to each other, but they did not tell us any specifics about Covid-19,” said Hye Kyung, the fruit trader. Those interviewed who had connections with the sea or people working near the sea said they were warned that Covid-19 could be spread through water, restricting movement by sea and across borders. “The authorities said Covid-19 could spread through water and didn’t let people [who lived near the water] leave the vicinities,” said Ah Young, the factory worker. Young Chul, the fisherman, said:
[Authorities] banned entry into the sea … if something washed up [on the beach, they] didn’t let [people] pick those things up, saying that [people] could get Covid-19. That’s why, if [you] got near the sea, [you] would be treated like an enemy … Officials said if animals crossed over [from abroad into the country], they could get Covid-19, and they could transmit it to people. So, they electrified the fences to stop animals. I thought it was a lie that the fence was electrified, but it had electricity.
With access to outside information further restricted during this period, ordinary people lacked the guidance they needed to make informed decisions about their health.
Since 2020, the government has enacted laws to suppress foreign and “anti-socialist” influences, which included harsher punishments for smuggling, consumption and distribution of foreign media, and imitating foreign culture, particularly South Korean language. These laws impose harsher punishments than those for serious crimes like treason, including public executions to instill fear among the population.
Everyone interviewed described increased fear and intensified crackdowns on foreign media. “Before I left, I also felt an increase in fear generally,” said Ah Young. “We were scared because of the rising prices, but also about watching videos.” K. Jin Joo, a vegetable trader, said: “As time passed, punishments became much harsher. If the crimes were related to drug [dealing], illegal recordings, or superstition, people would get long-term forced labor, and the death penalty for repeated offenses.”
In North Korea, ordinary people do not know when new laws are passed, and it is difficult for them to access any legal information. However, all those interviewed who left after 2021 knew about the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law enacted in December 2020 and its harsh punishments. Young Chul said:
This was a law important for the people to know. It was a message that such behavior would be severely punished. I heard about it during a seminar by the inminban. They told us all to write the law up and stick it to our doors…. The inminban distributed the text to write. [Authorities] wanted the law inside our homes, so we would see it every day… After two weeks or so, the head of the People’s Unit passed by to check we had the sign.
Il Hyuk, the rice trader, said in his area the Unified Command 82, an organization that monitored and suppressed “anti-socialist” activities, intensified its crackdown on watching South Korean media, selling in markets, and superstitious or religious observance, as well as harassment of the unemployed and couples living in common-law relationships. He said:
Before 2017, house inspections were conducted twice a year, usually in the spring and fall. However, since 2018, inspections began to occur monthly. Houses considered to need special inspection were inspected once every three days; those with young adults who were tech-savvy were under especially strict surveillance. From January to May 2023, 15 young adults from my neighborhood were taken away. If even one of the 15 people was caught, the authorities would track down anyone connected to that person and pursue them as well. This happened in just a matter of days … 10 percent of public executions I saw since 2020 were for crimes related to [watching or distributing foreign media] content.
I saw a public execution under [the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection] law on July 26, 2022, when a firing squad shot a 22-year-old farmworker’s son for listening to 70 South Korean songs, watching 3 movies, and distributing them. The witnesses were too scared to speak. All we could do was shake [because many of us had seen similar content] …. I heard a rumor that descendants of the high officials were also implicated, but they were forgiven. Only sons or daughters of farmworkers were executed to incite fear and deter citizens from engaging in those activities.
