Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

A/RES/80/220View PDF

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A document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 71cHuman rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, published in 2025.

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2026A/HRC/RES/61/27Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of KoreaCompare with earlier document
2025A/RES/80/220Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of KoreaCompare with earlier document
2025A/HRC/RES/58/17Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of KoreaCompare with earlier document
2024A/RES/79/181Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of KoreaCompare with earlier document
2024A/HRC/RES/55/21Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of KoreaCompare with earlier document

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Democratic People's Republic of Korea Human Rights Human Rights Violations

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61 operative paragraphs

Condemns in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in and by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including those that may amount to crimes against humanity according to the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 22/13 of 21 March 2013, and those identified by the group of independent experts on accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, established pursuant to Council resolution 31/18 of 23 March 2016, and by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including its field-based structure in Seoul, and the continuing impunity for such violations;

Expresses its very serious concern about:

Continuing reports of persistent violations of human rights, including the detailed findings made by the commission of inquiry in its report, by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its ongoing monitoring and documentation work and by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, such as:

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including inhuman conditions of detention; all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, in particular against women and girls; extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions; the imposition of the death penalty for political and religious reasons, which is now more widely allowed by law and implemented in practice; public executions; extrajudicial and arbitrary detention; the absence of fair trial guarantees and the rule of law, including an independent and corruption-free judiciary; and collective punishments extending up to three generations;

The existence of an extensive penal system including political prison camps, re-education camps, labour training camps, labour training centres, detention centres, holding centres and waiting rooms, where a vast number of persons are deprived of their liberty and subjected to deplorable conditions, including forced labour, and where alarming violations of human rights are perpetrated;

iii

Enforced and involuntary disappearances of persons by arrest, detention or abduction against their will; refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of the persons concerned; and refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places them outside the protection of the law and which has inflicted severe suffering on them and their families;

The forcible transfer of populations and the limitations imposed on persons wishing to move freely within the country or abroad, with even greater restrictions now compared to a decade ago, including harming or punishing those who leave or try to leave the country without permission, or their families;

The situation of refugees and asylum-seekers expelled or returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including where the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea exerts pressure on returning States to effectuate such returns, and retaliation by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea against its citizens who have been repatriated, including punishment by internment, torture, other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, sexual and gender-based violence, or the death penalty, and in this regard strongly urges all Member States to respect the fundamental principle of non‑refoulement, to take action to counter acts of transnational repression by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to treat humanely those who seek refuge and to ensure unhindered access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and his Office, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a view to protecting the human rights of those who seek refuge, and to refrain from sharing information about the contacts and conduct of refugees, asylum-seekers and other citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and once again urges States Parties to comply with their obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereto in relation to refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are covered by those instruments, as well as under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

All-pervasive and severe restrictions, including an absolute monopoly on information and total control over organized social life, further tightened by recent laws which provide for severe punishments, including the death penalty, namely the Law on Rejecting Reactionary Thought and Culture (2020), the Youth Education Guarantee Law (2021) and the Law on Protecting the Pyongyang Cultural Language (2023), on the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with individual privacy, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or imprisonment of individuals exercising their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and religion or belief, and the right of everyone, including women, to take part without unreasonable restriction in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives, of their country;

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Violations of economic, social and cultural rights, exacerbated by the continued border restrictions of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which have led to food insecurity, severe hunger, malnutrition, widespread health problems and other hardship for the population in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

viii

Violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women and girls, including unequal access to employment and discriminatory laws and regulations, domestic violence, as well as the creation of internal conditions that force women and girls to leave the country, making them extremely vulnerable to trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude or forced marriage, and their subjection to sexual and gender-based discrimination and violence, including in the political and social spheres and by law enforcement officials, as well as throughout the entire penal system, including through forced abortions, invasive body cavity searches and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence;

Violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of children, in particular the continued lack of access to basic economic, social and cultural rights for many children, and notes the particularly vulnerable situation faced by returned or repatriated children, children without housing, children with disabilities, children whose parents are detained, deceased or otherwise absent, children living in detention or in institutions and children in conflict with the law, and further notes with concern the reports of harsh and disproportionate punishment inflicted upon children;

Violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, especially violations involving the use of collective camps and coercive measures that target the rights of persons with disabilities to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and allegations of the possible use of persons with disabilities in medical testing, forced relocation to rural areas and separation of children with disabilities from their parents;

Widespread use of forced labour, which has become deeply institutionalized, and violations of workers’ rights, including the right to freedom of association and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike as defined by the obligations of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the prohibition of the economic exploitation of children and of any harmful or hazardous work of children as defined by the obligations of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the exploitation of workers sent abroad from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to work under conditions that amount to forced labour, often for the purpose of generating income for the Government, and emphasizing the importance, in order to avoid any risk of Member States contributing to practices that may be inconsistent with international human rights standards, including those associated with reports of forced labour involving workers sent abroad by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, of full implementation of the requirement that nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea earning income overseas be repatriated, subject to applicable national and international law, as soon as possible pursuant to paragraph 8 of Security Council resolution 2397 (2017), the provision of final reports as soon as possible pursuant to the same resolution and the prohibition on providing work authorizations pursuant to paragraph 17 of resolution 2375 (2017), and urges the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to promote, respect and protect the human rights of workers, including workers repatriated to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

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Discrimination based on the songbun system, which classifies people on the basis of State-assigned social class and birth and also includes consideration of political opinions and religion, and the practice of guilt by association;

The continued refusal of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to extend an invitation to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to engage and give consideration to the reports and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur, or to extend cooperation to the Special Rapporteur and several other United Nations special procedures, in accordance with their terms of reference, as well as to other United Nations human rights mechanisms;

The continued lack of acknowledgement by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of the grave human rights situation in the country and its consequential lack of action to report on the state of implementation of the recommendations contained in the outcome of its first, second, third and fourth universal periodic reviews and to give consideration to the concluding observations of the treaty bodies;

Condemns the systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance of persons, including those from other Member States, on a large scale and as a matter of State policy, including beyond the borders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well as denial of repatriation of prisoners of war, and in this regard strongly urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to engage in constructive dialogues with the parties concerned and to urgently resolve these issues of international grave concern, by clarifying their whereabouts in good faith and with credibility and transparency, including by taking concrete measures towards the realization of the immediate return of all abductees, detainees and unrepatriated prisoners of war, and in relevant cases to return the remains of the deceased, including those of deceased service personnel;

Underscores its very serious concern regarding reports of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, summary executions, arbitrary detention, abductions and other forms of human rights violations and abuses that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea commits against citizens of other Member States within and outside of its territory, and urges the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to disclose all relevant information to bereaved families and relevant entities;

Expresses its very deep concern about the prevalence of chronic and acute malnutrition, in particular among persons in the most vulnerable situations, including pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls, children, persons with disabilities, older persons and prisoners, including throughout the entire penal system and in all places of detention, which is exacerbated by a lack of access to basic services, including healthcare, clean water, sanitation and hygiene services, structural weaknesses in agricultural production that result in shortages of diversified food, limitations in the capacity of the Government to respond to natural disasters and government policies that limit access to and availability of adequate food, including through restrictions on the cultivation of and trade in foodstuffs and severe border restrictions, and urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to end such harmful policies and practices and remove obstacles to the return of international donor and humanitarian agencies and allow them access to people in vulnerable situations in order to implement humanitarian assistance programmes, monitored in a manner consistent with international standards;

Welcomes the latest report to the Human Rights Council of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

Reiterates its appreciation for the report of the group of independent experts on accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/18, including options to seek accountability and secure truth and justice for all victims;

Welcomes the latest report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on steps taken pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 34/24 of 24 March 2017, 40/20 of 22 March 2019 and 46/17 of 23 March 2021, and also welcomes Council resolutions 52/28 of 4 April 2023, 55/21 of 4 April 2024 and 58/17, which continue to strengthen the capacity of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including its field-based structure in Seoul, to allow the implementation of relevant recommendations made by the group of independent experts on accountability aimed at strengthening current monitoring and documentation efforts, establishing a central repository for information and evidence and having experts in legal accountability assess all information and testimonies with a view to developing possible strategies to be used in any future accountability process;

Expresses strong support for the work being undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including its field-based structure in Seoul, in furtherance of Human Rights Council resolution 58/17, with the aim of ensuring accountability for suspected violations of international law committed in and by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and calls upon all States to support such efforts;

Reiterates its appreciation for the work of the commission of inquiry and acknowledges the importance of its report and the finding that the body of testimony gathered and the information received provide reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State for decades and by institutions under the effective control of its leadership, which was confirmed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the report to the Human Rights Council submitted pursuant to resolutions 52/28 and 55/21;

Welcomes the comprehensive report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights containing an update on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since 2014, in which it was found that the overall human rights situation had not improved since 2014 and in many instances had degraded, and urges the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Member States to fulfil the recommendations contained therein;

Expresses its concern at the failure of the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations, including violations which the commission of inquiry has said may amount to crimes against humanity, and encourages the international community to cooperate with accountability efforts and to ensure that such crimes do not remain unpunished;

Encourages the Security Council to take appropriate action to ensure accountability, including through consideration of referral of the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the International Criminal Court and consideration of further targeted sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations that the commission of inquiry has said may constitute crimes against humanity;

Welcomes the resumption of the Security Council discussion on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and reiterates its appreciation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for briefing the Council on the country’s human rights situation, in the light of the serious concerns expressed in the present resolution, and looks forward to its continued and more active engagement on this matter;

Encourages the continuing endeavours of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including through its field-based structure in Seoul, in organizing consultations and outreach activities with victims and survivors, affected communities and other relevant stakeholders with a view to ensuring a victim- and survivor-centred approach to accountability, compiling a central repository to consolidate the information and evidence relating to suspected violations of international law, and assessing all such evidence and information in order to develop possible strategies to be used in any future accountability process, and also encourages the cooperation of the Office with a wide range of stakeholders in the procurement of evidence that could be used in future criminal proceedings;

Calls upon Member States to support efforts to strengthen legal accountability mechanisms, including the compilation of evidence for future criminal proceedings and the establishment of a central repository;

Also calls upon Member States to continue to support the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including its field-based structure in Seoul, for the endeavours listed in paragraph 15 above;

Further calls upon Member States to undertake to ensure that the field-based structure of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights can function with independence, has sufficient resources and support to fulfil its mandate, enjoys full cooperation with relevant Member States and is not subjected to any reprisals or threats;

Calls upon Member States to engage with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to explore options to strengthen, institutionalize and further advance work on accountability and undertake, where possible, the investigation and prosecution of persons suspected of committing international crimes in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in accordance with international law;

Strongly urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to respect, protect and fulfil all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, in this regard:

To immediately put an end to the systematic, widespread and grave violations and abuses of human rights emphasized above;

To immediately close the political prison camps and to release all political prisoners unconditionally and without any delay, and to immediately conduct a comprehensive review of conditions in all places of detention, including in prison camps, re-education camps, labour training camps, labour training centres, detention centres, holding centres and waiting rooms, and take steps to ensure that conditions in those facilities are in compliance with relevant obligations and commitments relating to the humane treatment of persons in detention, as outlined in the relevant provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), and to accept technical assistance by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on upholding rights in detention;

To immediately cease the use of torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment, including in places of detention, as well as the practice of forced labour and sexual and gender-based violence;

To protect its inhabitants, address the issue of impunity and ensure that those responsible for crimes involving violations and abuses of human rights are brought to justice before an independent judiciary;

To tackle the root causes leading to outflows of migrants and refugees and to prosecute, in trials that meet international human rights standards for fair trial, those involved in migrant smuggling, trafficking in human beings and extortion, while not criminalizing the victims and survivors of trafficking;

To ensure that everyone within the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea enjoys the right to liberty of movement, the freedom to leave the country and freedom to choose their residence, including for the purpose of seeking asylum outside the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, without interference by the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

To ensure that refugees, asylum-seekers and other citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are expelled or returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including women and girls who are victims and survivors of trafficking, are able to return in safety and dignity, are treated humanely, receive appropriate support and are not subjected to any kind of human rights violations and abuses, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary or unlawful detention in prisons or labour camps, arbitrary executions, torture and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence including forced abortions and infanticide against repatriated mothers, arbitrary invasive body cavity searches and trials that do not conform with international fair trial guarantees, and to provide information on their status and treatment;

To provide citizens of other Member States detained in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with protections, including freedom of communication with, and access to, consular officers in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a Party, and any other necessary arrangements to confirm their status and to communicate with their families;

To extend its full cooperation to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including by granting her full, free and unimpeded access to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and to other special procedures of the Human Rights Council, as well as to other United Nations human rights mechanisms, so that a full assessment of the human rights situation may be made;

To extend an invitation to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the country;

To engage in technical cooperation activities in the field of human rights with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and his Office, including the field-based structure in the region, as pursued by the previous High Commissioner in recent years, with a view to improving the situation of human rights in the country;

To implement the accepted recommendations stemming from the universal periodic reviews and to provide comprehensive information detailing progress on the implementation of the recommendations accepted from the fourth cycle;

To become a member of the International Labour Organization, to enact legislation and adopt practices to comply with international labour standards and to consider ratifying all the relevant conventions, in particular the core labour conventions of the International Labour Organization;

To cease policies and practices that cause its people to endure avoidable hardship and suffering and to clear the way for the return of international and humanitarian staff;

To ensure full, safe, timely and unhindered access to persons in need of humanitarian aid, and take measures to allow humanitarian agencies to survey and assess the needs of persons in vulnerable situations, including the unhindered and impartial delivery of such humanitarian aid to all parts of the country, on the basis of need consistent with international standards and humanitarian principles, as it pledged to do, and to furthermore ensure access to adequate basic services and implement more effective food security and nutrition policies, including through sustainable agriculture, sound food production and distribution measures and the allocation of more funds to the food sector, to allow adequate monitoring of humanitarian assistance;

To ensure for its people access to adequate basic services and implement effective food security and nutrition policies, sound food production and distribution measures and the allocation of adequate funds to the food sector; to establish an operating environment conducive to the return of international and humanitarian staff; and to improve cooperation with the United Nations country team members and humanitarian agencies, including by allowing for the immediate return of their international staff, so that they can directly contribute to improving the living conditions of the civilian population, including progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals;

To consider ratifying and acceding to the remaining international human rights treaties, which would enable a dialogue with the human rights treaty bodies, to prioritize reporting to monitoring bodies on treaties to which it is a Party, to submit all overdue reports, including to the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to participate meaningfully in treaty body reviews, and to give consideration to the concluding observations of such bodies in order to improve the human rights situation in the country;

To ensure the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief and the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, both online and offline, including by permitting the establishment of independent newspapers and other media and repealing or reforming all practices and laws suppressing the aforementioned rights, including the Law on Rejecting Reactionary Thought and Culture, the Youth Education Guarantee Law and the Law on Protecting the Pyongyang Cultural Language, and to distribute information about human rights to the population;

Urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to implement the recommendations of the commission of inquiry, the group of independent experts, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, the Secretary-General and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights without delay;

Reiterates the importance of maintaining high on the international agenda the grave human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including through sustained communications, advocacy and outreach initiatives, and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to strengthen those activities;

Encourages all Member States that engage in dialogue with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to continue to advocate for the establishment of lasting peace and security in the Korean Peninsula, to engage with United Nations human rights mechanisms and to address the human rights situation;

Encourages all Member States, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Secretariat, relevant specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and forums, civil society organizations, foundations and engaged business enterprises, and other stakeholders towards which the commission of inquiry has directed recommendations to implement or take forward those recommendations, including to provide more support for the work of civil society organizations to improve the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and to also support efforts aimed at resuming and improving dialogue, including inter‑Korean dialogue, and to address the humanitarian and human rights situation, including enforced disappearances, international abductions and the forced or involuntary separation of families in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

Encourages the United Nations system as a whole to continue to address the grave human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in a coordinated and unified manner;

Encourages the relevant United Nations programmes, funds, specialized agencies and other related organizations to assist the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the implementation of recommendations stemming from the United Nations human rights mechanisms;

Calls upon the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to engage constructively with international interlocutors with a view to promoting concrete improvements in the human rights situation on the ground, including through human rights dialogues, official visits to the country that include adequate access to fully assess human rights conditions, cooperation initiatives and more people-to-people contact;

Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at its eighty-first session, and to this end requests the Secretary-General to submit a comprehensive report on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to report her findings and recommendations, as well as to report on the follow-up to the implementation of the recommendations of the commission of inquiry.

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