Seoul, Jan 6 (IANS) The U.N. has published a report carrying testimonies from North Korean defectors about their home country’s heightened surveillance of citizens for possession of outside information and subsequent public trials, including execution by firing squad.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which advises the UN secretary-general, released the report on Wednesday ahead of the UN Human Rights Council’s upcoming session, scheduled to run from February 24 to April 4.
The report was compiled after interviews with 175 North Korean escapees about rights violations committed from late 2022 to late 2024.
Interviewees described the recent intensification of surveillance and control over ordinary citizens through a government task force, known as the “109 Sangmu,” which is responsible for cracking down on illegal videos, including foreign media content, according to the report.
“Interviewees told OHCHR that 109 Sangmu frequently wiretapped telephones and electronic devices, conducted warrantless home searches and confiscated unauthorised videos, publications, radios and USB drives,” the report said.
Those arrested were beaten and verbally abused during interrogations and “criminals” who accessed or distributed prohibited content were often subjected to public trials, including a few cases of execution by firing squad, the report noted, quoting the interviewees.
The OHCHR said its work appears to be known inside North Korea, citing sources informing that “security actors received some training in human rights and that treatment of persons in detention had slightly improved, reportedly because of international scrutiny.”
The office also noted a demographic shift among the North Korean escapees arriving in South Korea, saying that an increasing number of men, who had previously worked as labourers overseas, escaped from their workplaces and came to the South during the reporting period.
The OHCHR publishes such a report every two years and submits it to the UN Human Rights Council.
–IANS
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