As we argue about our rights to the First Amendment and freedom of speech while accusing governments of trying to 'censor' us, spare a thought for other countries around the world that don't have the same liberties.
2025 saw vocal backlash and equal support from a clampdown toward what we view online, with sites like Pornhub being forced to install third-party age verification. Some branded these moves Orwellian and compared them to living in a hard autocracy like China or North Korea, but spare a thought for those people who actually live in those regions.
Whether it be showing off its own map for how it thinks the world should look, spying on residents through its own government-controlled smartphones, or restricting surfing the web to a monitored intranet, North Korea has earned a reputation as a centralized totalitarian dictatorship.
With citizens being pummeled by the three-generation dynastic rule of the Kim family, life under Kim Jong Un comes with plenty of hardship.
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Even though you might see videos of YouTubers claiming it's not as bad as you think over there, an alarming report reveals a harrowing punishment that's still being exacted on those who call North Korea their home.
How is COVID-19 linked to executions in North Korea?
Over 7.14 million people have died since the start of COVID-19, and although not directly tied to the pandemic, The Guardian reports that North Korea added to its own death toll with a spike in its death penalty punishments.
With North Korea shutting down its borders due to COVID-19 in January 202, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) claims that executions and death sentences soared by 117% in a nearly five-year period. The Seoul-based human rights NGO maintains that the numbers have more than tripled.
Monitoring 13 years from Kim Jong Un becoming leader in December 2011, TJWG identified 46 execution sites and backed up its findings by disclosing coordinates for 40 of them. Looking at 144 cases, 136 execution events, and at least 358 individuals, it's said that around 70% of these executions were carried out in public as crowds were forced to watch.
These concerning stats were pulled from 265 North Korean defectors who lived in 51 cities and countries across the 13-year period, while additional information was provided by five North Korea-focused media outlets that claim to have sources inside the country.
It's said that numbers increased because North Korea used the pandemic to exploit being isolated from the rest of the world and increase the number of crimes that carried the death penalty.
How is the death penalty changing in North Korea?
In particular, death sentences and executions linked to the use, introduction, or dissemination of foreign culture and information leaped by 250% to become the top capital offense. This comes in contrast to death sentences for murder dropping by 44%.
Most alarmingly, the report backs up an Amnesty International claim that North Korea was clamping down on South Korean culture. It maintained that listening to K-pop bands like BTS or watching Netflix's Squid Game could "lead to the most extreme punishments, including death."
Ethan Hee-seok Shin, a legal analyst at the TJWG, says that the international community should be doing more to "deter and punish this crime against humanity," calling for organizations to "hold those responsible to account under international criminal law."
At the start of 2026, the death penalty had been fully abolished in 113 countries, with recent additions including Papua New Guinea and the Central African Republic. 54 countries are classed as retentionist, although a much smaller number actually carry out executions every year.
Even though China is believed to be the world's leading executioner, state secrecy from the likes of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and North Korea means we don't know the full extent.