Political Corruption

North Korea is widely known as a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by the Kim family dynasty. The Freedom House measures political rights and civil liberties of countries. North Korea is categorised as ‘not free’ with a score of 0/20 for political rights and 3/20 for civil liberties.

After the Korean Peninsula’s division, founding leader Kim Il-Sung established its political ideology, known as ‘Juche’ (meaning self-reliance), which is continued today by his grandson, Kim-Jong Un.

Defectors report severe human rights abuses including political prison and labour camps, food insecurity and high levels of poverty, lack of freedom of expression and movement – all used to maintain control over the population.

Political Prison Camps

According to Amnesty International, political prison camps are used to hold and punish those who have ‘criticised the leadership’, are ‘believed to be a part of anti-government groups’, or ‘were caught crossing the border on their way to South Korea’, etc. These camps hold a large amount of ‘detainees’, which is exacerbated by the policy of guilt by association, where three generations of families will be sent to camps even if only one has committed those crimes.

‘The state maintains a system of camps for political prisoners where torture, forced labor, [and] starvation…’ occur, where prisoners get ‘80-200 grams of boiled corn and soup with wild greens or radishes three times a day’, alongside ‘rape, forced abortions… and executions’.

Suppression of Freedom of Expression and Movement

North Korea maintains strict border control to limit information flow and movement of civilians, controlling media and banning foreign items. In 2023, ‘a group of North Korean youth athletes received sentences of three to five years’ of forced labour for using ‘South Korean slang’, as reported by Human Rights Watch. Failed defectors are heavily punished in political prisoner camps.

Border guards have a ‘standing order to ”shoot on sight” any person or animal approaching the border without permission’, a policy intensified during COVID-19 to ‘instil fear…and [restrict] trade and access to food and other necessities’.

Even those who do successfully defect, are still not safe. Human Rights Watch exposed this in April 2024, when ‘China forcibly returned around 60 North Korean refugees’ under a ‘1986 bilateral border protocol’ even despite the being signed onto the ‘United Nations Conventions against Torture’.

Starvation and the Right to Food

North Korea faced a famine in the 1990’s, with estimates of ‘up to one million people’ dying due to unsuitable farming terrain. The Soviet Union provided chemical fertilizer to boost crop production, however, this ceased after the USSR collapsed.

Despite a famine, Kim Jong-Il’s luxurious tastes ‘consumed 20 percent of North Korea’s budget’. His ‘military-first’ policy ‘prioritized the military and elites over the general population’, a practise still in place today. Many defectors state that ‘food shortages are one of the most common motivations for defection, with nearly 22% saying that was why they had defected’.

International Responses and Challenges

The international community has continuously condemned North Korea’s human rights abuses, but progress has been slow. The United Nations has conducted many reports condemning North Korean human rights violations, like the 2014 commission of inquiry report (United Nations 2014 DPRK Inquiry Report).

Whilst sanctions placed on North Korea are usually for security purposes due to nuclear missile threats, it would prove difficult for individual countries to place sanctions, via the United Nations Security Council, on North Korea for their human rights violations, as China and Russia (both North Korean allies) hold veto power on decisions due to being a permeant member of the council.

Conclusion

North Korea’s human rights abuses have systematically and historically oppressed millions, and it continues today. Without a regime overhaul, these violations – political prison camps, suppression of freedom of expression and movement, and starvation and the right to food – will persist.

Kim Jong-Un has already imposed stricter controls of civilians, so future Kim generations are unlikely to improve the human rights conditions that North Korean civilians deserve. However, this is not a reason to stop calling on the regime for accountability. Pressure must be maintained, continued and prevalent on North Korea.

Editor: Leah Russon Watkins