TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korea has continued to impose strict controls on the movement of its citizens, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of defectors escaping the country, a recent U.N. report showed, despite signs of easing its COVID-19 border closure.
A total of 181 North Korean defectors – 159 women and 22 men – entered South Korea between January and September of last year, according to a report submitted by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
In 2023, the number of defectors who made it to South Korea was 196.
The report highlighted that these numbers represent a drastic drop compared to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, some 1,047 defectors arrived in South Korea, meaning the latest figures amount to only about one-quarter to one-fifth of the previous count.
The report attributed the steep decline to North Korea’s continued restrictions on freedom of movement, despite partially reopening its borders.
It also noted a shift in defector demographics. Many of those arriving in South Korea in recent years were laborers who had been dispatched overseas – mainly to China and Russia – to generate foreign money for the Kim Jong Un regime, rather than the trafficked women who once comprised the majority of defectors.
The OHCHR’s report also documented severe human rights abuses within North Korea, based on testimonies from 175 defectors collected between November 2022 and October 2023. These testimonies detailed violations in detention facilities, chronic food shortages, ideological control through public executions, and other acts that could constitute international crimes.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged North Korea to acknowledge the existence of human rights violations and grant access to international human rights groups.
He also called for the punishment of inhumane treatment, protection against enforced disappearances and rapid compensation for victims.
“The United Nations Security Council should take measures, such as referring the case to the International Criminal Court, to hold those responsible for serious human rights violations in North Korea accountable,” said Türk.
North Korea reportedly closed its only gateway for foreign tourists in early March, weeks after allowing visitors back in, which had suggested it was opening up for the first time since imposing a COVID-19 ban on arrivals in 2020.
Impact on public health
The North’s strict movement controls also have far-reaching consequences on public health and sanitation because the lack of mobility hampers access to essential services and resources.
Despite some foreign embassies, such as those of Cuba, India, Poland, and Sweden, resuming operations in Pyongyang since the latter half of 2024, U.N. and humanitarian aid organizations still face restrictions on entering the country, according to a separate report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council by Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea.
The report said that North Korea’s chronic food insecurity has left nearly half of the population suffering from malnutrition.
It estimated the country’s malnutrition rate at an average of 45.5% over the past three years. Based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, approximately 11.8 million North Koreans were estimated to be malnourished during this period.
The report attributed the severe food crisis to a combination of outdated production infrastructure, inadequate technology, a lack of investment, and frequent natural disasters. Additionally, the government’s restrictive policies on private enterprise, including the reinstatement of state control over essential goods like rice and corn, have worsened the situation.
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The national vaccination rate has plunged from over 96% before the pandemic to below 42% by mid-2021, with no children receiving vaccinations for major diseases, including tuberculosis, throughout 2022, according to the report.
North Korea has been designated as one of 30 high-burden nations for drug-resistant tuberculosis by the World Health Organization.
The report also revealed that 52% of North Korean households rely on unsanitary waste disposal, posing serious public health risks, including increased cases of diarrhea.
Edited by Mike Firn and Stephen Wright.