# Capital punishment in North Korea

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in North Korea. It is used for many offences, such as grand theft, murder, rape, drug smuggling, treason, espionage, political dissent, defection, piracy, consumption of media not approved by the government and proselytizing religious beliefs that contradict the practiced Juche ideology. Owing to the secrecy of the North Korean government, working knowledge of the topic depends heavily on anonymous sources, accounts of defectors (both relatives of victims, and former members of the government) and reports by Radio Free Asia, a United States government-funded news service that operates in East Asia. The country allegedly carries out public executions, which, if true, makes North Korea one of the last four countries that still performs public executions, the other three being Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, but this has been disputed by some defector accounts.

## Reported executions

The South-Korean-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights has collected unverified testimony on 1,193 historic executions in North Korea through 2009. Amnesty International reported that there were 105 executions between 2007 and 2012. The Foreign Policy periodical estimated there were 60 executions in 2010. In October 2001, the North Korean government told the UN Human Rights Committee that "only 13" executions had occurred since 1998 and that no public execution had occurred since 1992.
On December 13, 2013, North Korean state media announced the execution of Jang Sung-taek, the uncle by marriage of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. The South Korean National Intelligence Service believes that two of Kim Jong Un's closest aides, Lee Yong-ha and Jang Soo-keel, were executed in mid-November.
In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council created a Commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, investigating and documenting alleged instances of executions carried out with or without trial, publicly or secretly, in response to political and other crimes that are often not among the most serious. The Commission determined that these systematic acts, if true, rise to the level of crimes against humanity.

### List of reported executions

| Date of execution | Convict | Crime | Method | Source |
| January 10, 2025 | Two unnamed nuclear power plant construction researchers | Failing to meet technical targets set by the Central Committee | Unspecified | Daily NK |
| August 2024 | 20–30 party officials | Corruption and dereliction of duty in failure to prevent the Yalu river flooding, which killed 5,000 people | Unspecified | Newsweek |
| December 19, 2023 | Unnamed 23-year old man | Murder–robbery | Public execution by firing squad | Radio Free Asia |
| September 25, 2023 | Unnamed 40-year old man | Stealing medicine | Public execution by firing squad | Radio Free Asia |
| August 30, 2023 | Nine unnamed people | Smuggling beef | Public execution by firing squad | Radio Free Asia |
| March 2023 | Unnamed pregnant woman | Political dissent | Unspecified | Hindustan Times |
| March 2023 | Six unnamed teenagers | Watching South Korean movies and using drugs | Execution by shooting | Hindustan Times |
| October 2022 | Two unnamed teenagers | Distributing South Korean movies | Public execution by firing squad | Radio Free Asia |
| October 2022 | Unnamed teenager | Murder of stepmother | Public execution by firing squad | Radio Free Asia |
| April 2022 | Unnamed 22-year-old man | Distributing South Korean media | Public execution by firing squad | South Korea's Unification Ministry, BBC |
| January 2022 | Unnamed man and woman | Distributing South Korean movies | Public execution by firing squad | Daily NK |
| March 2, 2021 | Three unnamed men and one unnamed woman | Distributing South Korean movies | Public execution by firing squad | Daily NK |
| July 20, 2020 | Six unnamed men | Sex trafficking | Public execution by shooting | Radio Free Asia |
| May 2020 | Unnamed woman and man | Escape attempt | Execution by shooting | Radio Free Asia |
| April 2020 | Three unnamed men | Theft | Execution by shooting | Radio Free Asia |
| February 2020 | Unnamed man | Quarantine violation | Execution by shooting | |
| March 2019 | Two unnamed women | Fortune-telling | Public execution by shooting | |
| January 10, 2019 | Unnamed man | Murder of prison guard | Execution by shooting | |
| December 2018 | Unnamed man | Corruption | Public execution by shooting | |
| December 2018 | Unnamed person | Fortune telling | Public execution; method unspecified | |
| November 17, 2018 | Unnamed woman | Fortune telling | Execution by shooting | Daily NK |
| 2018 | Male Military officer | Embezzlement | Unspecified | |
| April 2017 | One man | Extortion, murder, theft | Secret execution; method unspecified | Daily NK |
| February 27, 2017 | 5 unnamed men | Making false report | Execution by shooting | |
| May 2015 | Choe Yong-gon | Treason | Unspecified | |
| 2015 | Six people | Conducting Christian worship | Execution by shooting | |
| 2014 | Unspecified | Conducting Shamanism | Unspecified | USCIRF |
| 2014 | 49-year-old man | Calling relative in South Korea | Unspecified | |
| December 12, 2013 | Jang Song-thaek and 7 unnamed men | Treason | Execution by shooting | |
| April 2011 | Child and Grandmother | Conducting Christian worship | Execution by firing squad | |
| January 3, 2011 | Unnamed man and unnamed woman | Treason | Execution by shooting | |
| March 17, 2010 | Pak Nam-gi | Treason | Execution by shooting | |
| July 10, 2007 | Unnamed woman | Stealing and murder of a 12 year-old girl | Execution by shooting | |
| May 17, 2007 | Two Guards | Selling drugs and theft | Public execution | |
| March 2, 2005 | Han Bok Nam | Illegal border crossing and human trafficking | Public execution by shooting | |
| March 1, 2005 | Choi Jae Gon and Park Myung Gil | Transgression of the national border and human trafficking | Public execution by shooting | |
| February 28- March 1, 2005 | Three men | Human trafficking | Public execution by shooting | |
| March 2002 | Three members of the Lee Min Park family | Conducting Christian worship | Unspecified | |
| 1997 | So Kwan-hui | Sabotage | Public execution by shooting | |
| October 1991 | Park Myung-sik | Twelve murders | Execution by firing squad | |
| 1981 | Woo In-hee | Mistress of Kim Jong Il | Public execution by shooting | |

## Public executions

North Korea was alleged to have resumed public executions in October 2007 after they had declined in the years following 2000 amidst international criticism. Prominent supposedly executed criminals include officials convicted of drug trafficking and embezzlement. Common criminals convicted of crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, drug dealing, smuggling, piracy, vandalism, etc. have also been reported to be executed, mostly by firing squad. The country does not publicly release national crime statistics or reports on the levels of crimes. As of 2012, North Korea is allegedly one of four countries carrying out executions in public, the other three being Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. However, according to defectors interviewed by The Diplomat in 2014, the practice of such activities had not occurred, at least in Hyesan since 2000.
In October 2007, a South Pyongan province factory chief convicted of making international phone calls from 13 phones he installed in his factory basement was supposedly executed by firing squad in front of a crowd of 150,000 people in a stadium, according to an unverified report from a South Korean aid agency called Good Friends. Good Friends also reported that six were killed in the rush as spectators left. In another unverified instance, 15 people were allegedly publicly executed for crossing the border into China.
A U.N. General Assembly committee has adopted a draft resolution, co-sponsored by more than 50 countries, expressing "very serious concern" at reports of widespread human rights violations in North Korea, including public executions. North Korea has condemned the draft, saying it is inaccurate and biased. The report was sent to the then 192-member General Assembly for a final vote.
In 2011, two people were allegedly executed in front of 500 spectators for handling propaganda leaflets floated across the border from South Korea, reportedly as part of an unverified campaign by former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to tighten ideological control as he groomed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the eventual successor.
In June 2019, a South Korean NGO the Transitional Justice Working Group released an unverified report "Mapping the Fate of the Dead" that suggested 318 sites in North Korea supposedly used by the government for public executions. According to the NGO, public executions have taken place near rivers, fields, markets, schools, and sports grounds. The report alleges that family members and children of those sentenced to death were forced to watch their executions.

## Capital punishment in prison camps

Amnesty International has alleged that torture and executions are widespread in political prisons in North Korea. Unverified testimonies describe secret and public executions in North Korean prisons by firing squad, decapitation or by hanging. Executions are allegedly used as a means of deterrence, often accompanied by torture.