Released by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the report outlines extensive evidence of abuse, including arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, and restrictions on freedom of movement and expression. Investigators say these practices are not isolated incidents but rather part of a state-controlled system designed to maintain absolute control over the population.
“Grave human rights abuses continue to be committed with impunity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the report states. “These violations are deeply entrenched in the political and legal framework of the country and are enabled by the absence of rule of law.”
The findings are based on interviews with recent defectors, satellite imagery, and expert analyses. Among the most alarming allegations are the continued operation of political prison camps—known as kwanliso—where detainees are subjected to starvation, beatings, and execution without trial.
One former prisoner quoted in the report described being forced to watch public executions and working 18-hour days with little food. “You don’t live in those camps,” the witness said. “You survive, barely.”
The report also highlights North Korea’s intensified crackdown on access to outside information, including the imprisonment of individuals caught consuming foreign media such as South Korean dramas or foreign news broadcasts. It further criticizes the regime’s discriminatory food distribution system, which prioritizes the elite class while leaving much of the rural population malnourished.
In response, the UN has renewed its call for North Korea to grant access to independent human rights monitors and urged the international community to hold the regime accountable. Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk emphasized the need for “sustained pressure and principled engagement” to address the deepening crisis.
The North Korean government, as in past years, dismissed the report as “a political fabrication” and accused the UN of spreading “anti-DPRK propaganda.”
Despite repeated resolutions, efforts to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) have been blocked at the UN Security Council, primarily due to opposition from China and Russia.
Human rights groups say that the report should serve as a renewed wake-up call.
“North Korea remains one of the most repressive regimes in the world,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “This report reinforces what we already know: the suffering continues, and silence is complicity.”
The OHCHR is urging governments, especially those in the region, to provide greater protections for North Korean refugees and defectors and to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those in need without strengthening the regime’s grip on power.