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

A/RES/74/166View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 70c Human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, published in 2020.

What else is in this group?

38 documents · 2006–2026

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2026).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	A/HRC/RES/61/27	Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea	4,711	–
2025	A/RES/80/220	Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea	6,518	–
2025	A/HRC/RES/58/17	Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea	6,041	–
2024	A/RES/79/181	Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea	6,886	–
2024	A/HRC/RES/55/21	Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea	5,700	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2020

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2020	A/75/271	Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/74/166

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

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

What’s in this document?

55 operative paragraphs

Condemns 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 2013,¹³ and those identified by the group of independent experts on accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,¹⁴ established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/18 of 23 March 2016,¹⁵ and by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the continuing impunity for such violations;

¹³See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/68/53), chap. IV, sect. A.

¹⁴See A/HRC/34/66/Add.1.

¹⁵See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/71/53), chap. IV, sect. A.

Expresses its very serious concern about:

The persistence of continuing reports of violations of human rights, including the detailed findings made by the commission of inquiry in its report,2 such as:

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including inhuman conditions of detention; rape; public executions; extrajudicial and arbitrary detention; the absence of due process and the rule of law, including fair trial guarantees and an independent judiciary; extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions; the imposition of the death penalty for political and religious reasons; collective punishments extending up to three generations; and the extensive use of forced labour;

The existence of an extensive system of political prison camps, 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 such persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and which has had the effect of inflicting severe suffering on them and their families;

The forcible transfer of populations and the limitations imposed on every person who wishes to move freely within the country and travel abroad, including the punishment of those who leave or try to leave the country without permission, or their families, as well as punishment of persons who are returned;

The situation of refugees and asylum seekers expelled or returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and retaliations against citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who have been repatriated from abroad, leading to punishments of internment, torture, other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, sexual violence or the death penalty, and in this regard strongly urges all States to respect the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, to treat those who seek refuge humanely and to ensure unhindered access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and his Office, with a view to protecting the human rights of those who seek refuge, and once again urges States parties to comply with their obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees¹⁶ and the 1967 Protocol thereto¹⁷ in relation to refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are covered by those instruments;

¹⁶United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545.

¹⁷Ibid., vol. 606, No. 8791.

All-pervasive and severe restrictions, both online and offline, on the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion or belief, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, the right to privacy and equal access to information, by such means as the unlawful and arbitrary surveillance, persecution, torture, imprisonment and, in some instances, summary executions of individuals exercising their freedom of opinion and expression, religion or belief, and their families, and the right of everyone, including women, to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives, of his or her country;

vii

Violations of economic, social and cultural rights, 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, in particular for women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons and political prisoners;

viii

Violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, in particular the creation of internal conditions that force women and girls to leave the country and make them extremely vulnerable to trafficking in persons for the purpose of prostitution, domestic servitude or forced marriage and the subjection of women and girls to gender-based discrimination, including in the political and social spheres, forced abortions 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 in this regard notes the particularly vulnerable situation faced by, inter alia, returned or repatriated children, street children, children with disabilities, children whose parents are detained, children living in detention or in institutions and children in conflict with the law;

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;

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,5 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,6 as well as the exploitation of workers sent abroad from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to work under conditions that reportedly amount to forced labour, recalling paragraph 11 of Security Council resolution 2371 (2017) and paragraph 17 of resolution 2375 (2017), in which the Council decided that Member States shall not provide work authorizations for nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in their jurisdictions, and also recalling paragraph 8 of Council resolution 2397 (2017), in which the Council decided that Member States shall repatriate to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea all nationals from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea earning income in that Member State’s jurisdiction and all government safety oversight attachés of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea monitoring workers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea abroad immediately, but not later than 24 months from 22 December 2017, unless the Member State determines that a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea national is a national of that Member State or a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea national’s repatriation is prohibited, subject to applicable national and international law, including international refugee law and international human rights law, the Agreement between the United Nations and the United States of America regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations¹⁸ and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations,¹⁹ 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;

¹⁸See resolution 169 (II).

¹⁹Resolution 22 A (I).

xii

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;

xiii

Violence and discrimination against women, including unequal access to employment, discriminatory laws and regulations;

The continued refusal of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to extend an invitation to the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 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 first²⁰ and second²¹ universal periodic reviews and to give consideration to the concluding observations of the treaty bodies;

²⁰A/HRC/13/13.

²¹A/HRC/27/10.

Condemns the systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance of persons, including those from other countries, on a large scale and as a matter of State policy, and in this regard strongly calls upon the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea urgently to resolve these issues of international concern, in a transparent manner, including by ensuring the immediate return of abductees;

Underscores its very serious concern regarding reports of torture, 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 countries within and outside of its territory;

Expresses its very deep concern at the precarious humanitarian situation in the country, which could rapidly deteriorate owing to limited resilience to natural disasters and to government policies causing limitations in the availability of and access to adequate food, compounded by structural weaknesses in agricultural production resulting in significant shortages of diversified food and the State restrictions on the cultivation of and trade in foodstuffs, as well as the prevalence of chronic and acute malnutrition, particularly among the most vulnerable groups, pregnant and lactating women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons and prisoners, including political prisoners, exacerbated due to lack of access to basic services, including health care as well as water, sanitation and hygiene services, and urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in this regard, to take preventive and remedial action, cooperating with international donor and humanitarian agencies for accessing people belonging to vulnerable groups, facilitating the implementation of programmes and monitoring humanitarian assistance 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;²²

²²A/HRC/40/66.

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,²³ established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/18, including options to seek accountability and secure truth and justice for all victims;

²³A/HRC/34/66/Add.1.

Welcomes the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights²⁴ on steps taken pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 34/24 of 24 March 2017²⁵ 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;

²⁴A/HRC/40/36.

²⁵See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-second Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/72/53), chap. IV, sect. A.

Also welcomes the steps taken pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 40/20 to continue the efforts outlined above, expresses strong support for the work being undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner in furtherance of the resolution, 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, recognizes the continuing importance of its report, and regrets that the commission received no cooperation from the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including with regard to access to the country;

Acknowledges the commission of inquiry’s 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 her report to the Human Rights Council submitted pursuant to resolution 34/24;

Expresses its concern at the failure of the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to prosecute 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 continue its consideration of the relevant conclusions and recommendations of the commission of inquiry and 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 sanctions in order to target effectively those who appear to be most responsible for human rights violations that the commission has said may constitute crimes against humanity;

Also encourages the Security Council to continue to discuss the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including 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 field-based structure in Seoul and its efforts in developing a central repository for 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 welcomes its regular reporting to the Human Rights Council;

Calls upon Member States to undertake to ensure that the field-based structure of the Office of the High Commissioner 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;

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

To immediately put an end to the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights emphasized above, inter alia, by implementing fully the measures set out in the above-mentioned resolutions of the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, and the recommendations addressed to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by the Council in the context of the universal periodic review and by the commission of inquiry, the United Nations special procedures and treaty bodies;

To immediately close the political prison camps and to release all political prisoners unconditionally and without any delay;

To protect its inhabitants, address the issue of impunity and ensure that those responsible for crimes involving violations 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 those involved in migrant smuggling, trafficking in human beings and extortion, while not criminalizing the victims of trafficking;

To ensure that everyone within the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea enjoys the right to liberty of movement and is free to leave the country, 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 citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are expelled or returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are able to return in safety and dignity, are treated humanely and are not subjected to any kind of punishment, and to provide information on their status and treatment;

To provide citizens of other countries 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,²⁶ 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;

²⁶United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 596, No. 8638.

To extend its full cooperation to the Special Rapporteur, including by granting him 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 needs assessment of the human rights situation may be made;

To engage in technical cooperation activities in the field of human rights with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and her Office, including the field-based structure in the region, as pursued by the 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 consider positively those recommendations which are still under consideration from the third review cycle, and to submit a midterm voluntary report to detail progress on the implementation of recommendations accepted from the third 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 continue and reinforce its cooperation with United Nations humanitarian agencies;

To ensure full, safe and unhindered access of persons in vulnerable situations to humanitarian aid, and take measures to allow humanitarian agencies to survey the needs of persons belonging to vulnerable groups, to obtain critical baseline data and to enable the unhindered and impartial delivery of such humanitarian aid to all parts of the country, on the basis of need in accordance with humanitarian principles, as it pledged to do, 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, and to allow adequate monitoring of humanitarian assistance;

To further improve cooperation with the United Nations country team members and development agencies 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;12

To consider ratifying and acceding to the remaining international human rights treaties, which would enable a dialogue with the human rights treaty bodies, to resume reporting to monitoring bodies on treaties to which it is a party, 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;

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, 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, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner, 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;

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 universal periodic reviews, human rights treaty body reviews and from the report of the commission of inquiry;

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 as a matter of priority;

Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at its seventy-fifth 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 his 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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