The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
“Today’s report finds that the overall human rights situation in DPRK has not improved over the past decade and, in many instances, has degraded, bringing even more suffering to the population,” spokesperson Liz Throssell told the biweekly briefing in Geneva.
The report points to the introduction of more laws, policies and practices that are subjecting citizens to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life, Throssell said.
“The report says political prison camps continue to operate. The fate of the hundreds of thousands of disappeared people, including abducted foreign nationals of the Republic of Korea, Japan and elsewhere, remains unknown,”she said.
Citizens continue to be subjected to unremitting propaganda by the State for their entire lives. The right to food continues to be violated, with some State policies exacerbating hunger.
“Today, the death penalty is more widely allowed by law and implemented in practice,” Throssell stated.
Enjoyment of freedom of expression and access to information have significantly regressed, with the implementation of severe new punishments, including the death penalty, for a range of acts.
James Heenan, head of the office working on DPRK, who joined the briefing remotely from Seoul, highlighted that these acts included sharing foreign media and TV shows, including so-called K-dramas.
“We do have credible evidence that individuals have been executed not just for watching K-dramas. The crime is for distributing, distributing at a certain level, foreign information, foreign media,” he explained.
“The report, which is based on hundreds of interviews by the Office along with supporting materials, points to the increased use of forced labour in many forms, particularly so-called “shock brigades”, usually deployed to take on physically demanding and hazardous sectors such as mining and construction. They often come from poorer families and in recent years, the Government has used thousands of orphans and street children in coal mines and at other hazardous sites and for extensive hours,” Throssell said.
Heenan explained further how children are exposed to different forms of forced labour
“One is in schools, school children are used, to do things like particularly harvest season to collect the harvest from the fields, but also to do manual work around the school or along roads and so forth. The government says that this is just part of a sort of a, curriculum to help them learn life skills. But the information we've had for many years now is that it meets meets the qualification of forced labour because the children have no choice. And often the work is is quite, quite backbreakingand takes a lort of their days,” said Heenan.
If DPRK continues on this current trajectory,according to the report, the population will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long, Throssell highlighted.
The UN Human Rights Office continues to document human rights violations, some of which may amount to international crimes.
There were reports of some limited improvements. Escapees reported nominal improvements in the treatment of people in detention facilities.
Several laws have been enacted or amended, reportedly strengthening fair trial guarantees and protection against ill-treatment of persons deprived of liberty. The country is engaging to a degree with the international human rights system, ratifying two futher human rights treaties and complying with some treaty bodies’ reporting obligations.
However, the disconnect between the State’s international obligations and ultimately the reality of the lives of its citizens remains stark, the report concludes.
The report lays out some immediate steps to foster credibility of the Government’s commitment to human rights and provide momentum for a new path.
These include: ending the system of political prison camps and guilt by association; ending the use of the death penalty; restarting family connections, including through meetings; ending torture and ill-treatment in places of detention; providing information on those abducted or forcibly disappeared by the State; distributing information about human rights to the population; inviting the High Commissioner and other human rights mechanisms to visit the country; and accepting UN Human Rights technical assistance on rights in detention.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Geneva:
Ravina Shamdasani: + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org
Liz Throssell: +41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org
Facebook unitednationshumanrights
Instagram @unitednationshumanrights
STORY:UN Human Rights Spokeperson Liz Throssell: DPRK report on suffering, repression and fear since 2014
TRT: 03:22
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: Pictures ©SARAM – Foundation for Human Rights in North Korea.
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 12 September 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST:
- Covers of UN Human Rights reports are used as backdrops
- Pictures of North Korea are use as backdrops © SARAM – Foundation for Human Rights in North Korea.
- SOUNDBITE (English)—UN Human Rights Elizabeth Throssell , UN Human Rights Representative Seoul, Korea: “Today’s report finds that the overall human rights situation in DPRK has not improved over the past decade and, in many instances, has degraded, bringing even more suffering to the population.”
- Cut Aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—UN Human Rights Elizabeth Throssell , UN Human Rights Representative Seoul, Korea: “The report says political prison camps continue to operate. The fate of the hundreds of thousands of disappeared people, including abducted foreign nationals of the Republic of Korea, Japan and elsewhere, remains unknown.”
- Cut Aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—UN Human Rights Elizabeth Throssell , UN Human Rights Representative Seoul, Korea: “Today, the death penalty is more widely allowed by law and implemented in practice.”
- Cut Aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— James Heenan, UN Human Rights Representative Seoul, Korea: “We do have credible evidence that individuals have been executed not just for watching K-dramas. The crime is for distributing, distributing at a certain level, foreign information, foreign media.”
- Cut Aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—UN Human Rights Elizabeth Throssell , UN Human Rights Representative Seoul, Korea: “The report, which is based on hundreds of interviews by the Office along with supporting materials, points to the increased use of forced labour in many forms, particularly so-called “shock brigades”, usually deployed to take on physically demanding and hazardous sectors such as mining and construction. They often come from poorer families and in recent years, the Government has used thousands of orphans and street children in coal mines and at other hazardous sites and for extensive hours.”
- Cut Aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)— James Heenan, UN Human Rights Representative Seoul, Korea: “One is in schools, school children are used, to do things like particularly harvest season to collect the harvest from the fields, but also to do manual work around the school or along roads and so forth. The government says that this is just part of a sort of a, curriculum to help them learn life skills. But the information we've had for many years now is that it meets meets the qualification of forced labour because the children have no choice. And often the work is is quite, quite backbreakingand takes a lort of their days.”
- Covers of UN Human Rights reports
- Pictures of North Korea © SARAM – Foundation for Human Rights in North Korea.
END
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF , IFRC
Six weeks after Nepal’s deadly flooding disaster, communities are still struggling to rebuild their lives, but they will need sustained help as global warming increases the risk of another Himalayan catastrophe, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
In suspected Russia plague death, testing and monitoring underway – WHO
The death of a lab worker in Russia’s Siberia region has sparked concerns about plague being the cause, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, adding that it was following the situation closely.
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday provided and oral update to the 63rd session of the Human rights Council on Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday provided and oral update to the 63rd session of the Human rights Council on the human rights situation in Haiti.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and more from Israel into Gaza risk having devastating consequences on Palestinians who urgently need them in the wartorn enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. “A truck full of non-priority supplies or the right supplies arriving too late, doesn't save lives. That's the question that actually matters," said Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the OPT.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC: Early access to care and oxygen decisive for Ebola patients’ survival – WHO
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UN
Civilians in Iran are continuing to feel the consequences of months of conflict and military escalation, the UN’s top official in the country has said, as loss of life, damage to civilian infrastructure and mounting economic pressures leave many facing continued uncertainty.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNICEF
Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Displacement on the rise in Yemen as fighting continues - UNHCR
As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends