North Korea
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 3
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · A commentary on Korean Criminal Law considers the use...
- News items in the archive
- 257
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
North Korea is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 3 the year before. The archive holds 257 news items on North Korea, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- FEBRUARY 26, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The United States accused North Korea of being "one...
The United States accused North Korea of being "one of the world's most inhumane regimes," citing persecution of forcibly repatriated North Koreans and harsh prison camp conditions
- FEBRUARY 18, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
A civic group, Democracy Network Against the North...
A civic group, Democracy Network Against the North Korean Gulag, submitted a petition to the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, requesting that the Canadian government grant political refugee status to Ri Song-dae, 36, a former North Korean diplomat
- FEBRUARY 12, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The Wiesenthal Center, a US-based human rights organization,...
The Wiesenthal Center, a US-based human rights organization, urged the Chinese government not to return a North Korean refugee, who claimed to have witnessed the use of gas chambers in the country
- FEBRUARY 6, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Canadian Immigration Minister Judy Sgro said she would...
Canadian Immigration Minister Judy Sgro said she would consider the humanitarian appeal of Song Dae Ri, a North Korean dissident whose asylum plea was rejected by the national refugee board leaving him to face execution for treason in his homeland
- FEBRUARY 1, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
North Korea has killed political prisoners in gas chambers
North Korea has killed political prisoners in gas chambers
- JANUARY 21, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed...
Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed for stealing food and others have died of malnutrition in labour camps, Amnesty International said in a report
- JANUARY 8, 2004North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Two ethnic Korean-Chinese people were executed by firing...
Two ethnic Korean-Chinese people were executed by firing squad and two others were sentenced to 25 years in prison
- OCTOBER 23, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
"The Hidden Gulag - Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps",...
"The Hidden Gulag - Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps", a report by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said that close to 200,000 political prisoners worked in conditions of slave labour and near-starvation in dozens of secret prison camp
- JULY 15, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
North Korean defector Soon Ok Lee, author of "Eyes...
North Korean defector Soon Ok Lee, author of "Eyes of the Tailless Animal: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman," detailed her experiences at a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) conference
- JUNE 3, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Some Chinese newspapers cited North Korean defectors...
Some Chinese newspapers cited North Korean defectors as saying that the famine in the country had gotten so bad that human flesh was being sold on the black market
- APRIL 16, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The United Nations Human Rights Commission issued its...
The United Nations Human Rights Commission issued its first ever condemnation of North Korea, expressing "deep concern" at "systematic" rights abuses in the reclusive Communist state
- APRIL 16, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The United Nations Human Rights Commission issued its...
The United Nations Human Rights Commission issued its first ever condemnation of North Korea, expressing "deep concern" at "systematic" rights abuses in the reclusive Communist state
- APRIL 9, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Out of 78 North Koreans arrested in the attempt to...
Out of 78 North Koreans arrested in the attempt to escape from China to South Korea in January, 30 were handed over by the Chinese authorities to North Korean frontier guards
- FEBRUARY 6, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
"Back in the North, first-time escapees are mostly...
"Back in the North, first-time escapees are mostly set free; but repeaters are banished, often with their entire families, to Soviet-style concentration camps
- FEBRUARY 5, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Norbert Vollertsen, in an editorial on the plight of...
Norbert Vollertsen, in an editorial on the plight of North Korean refugees, wrote: "I interviewed several hundred North Korean defectors in Seoul, as well as near the Chinese-North Korean border, plus in several other locations where they are hiding
- JANUARY 29, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
China reportedly forcibly repatriated to North Korea...
China reportedly forcibly repatriated to North Korea ten refugees arrested in China whilst attempting to reach South Korea and Japan by boat earlier in January
- JANUARY 21, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
North Koreans arrested by China while trying to escape...
North Koreans arrested by China while trying to escape by boat are likely to be jailed and could face death, their supporters said as Beijing warned aid groups away from helping the refugees
- JUNE 21, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
January 24-June 21, 2002: tens of thousands of political...
January 24-June 21, 2002: tens of thousands of political prisoners face starvation, torture and summary execution in prison camps in North Korea, according to the testimony of a prisoner to a US Senate inquiry
- JUNE 21, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Tens of thousands of political prisoners face starvation,...
Tens of thousands of political prisoners face starvation, torture and summary execution in prison camps in North Korea, according to the testimony of a prisoner to a US Senate inquiry
- JUNE 7, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The "conservative" number of North Korean defectors...
The "conservative" number of North Korean defectors hiding in China was estimated at 50,000 at the end of 2001, with 583 of them fleeing to freedom in South Korea, a non-profit United States organisation helping refugees said in its recent annual report
- MAY 31, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Chinese police arrested a group of North Korean defectors...
Chinese police arrested a group of North Korean defectors in Yunnan Province, near the country's border with Laos and Myanmar, between 24 and the 26 May, activists in Seoul said
- APRIL 27, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Human rights activists reported a crackdown on North...
Human rights activists reported a crackdown on North Korean refugees entering China over its northern border, as well as the arrest of South Korean missionaries who try to help them
- MARCH 28, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has ordered all drug...
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has ordered all drug users to be executed by shooting, the Russian newspaper Komsomol Pravda reported, citing a senior Russian official
- FEBRUARY 13, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
A North Korean defector who made headlines in 2000...
A North Korean defector who made headlines in 2000 when he decided to return home in search of his wife has escaped a second time after finding that she and most of his other relatives were killed in retaliation for his earlier defection
- JANUARY 8, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Kim Mun-song, vice trade minister and vice-chairman...
Kim Mun-song, vice trade minister and vice-chairman of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] Committee for the Promotion of External Economic Cooperation [CPEEC], was recently executed by shooting, the South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo web sit
- JANUARY 1, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The North Korean penal code stipulates capital punishment...
The North Korean penal code stipulates capital punishment and confiscation of all personal assets for a wide variety of "crimes against the revolution", including attempted defection, listening to foreign broadcasts and possessing "reactionary" printed ma
- NOVEMBER 16, 2001North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
It has been learned that in May and June 2000 a group...
It has been learned that in May and June 2000 a group of more than 30 senior party and company officials, merchants and hooligans were executed in Hyesan City, Jagang province
- NOVEMBER 16, 2001North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
It has been learned that in May and June 2000 a group...
It has been learned that in May and June 2000 a group of more than 30 senior party and company officials, merchants and hooligans were executed in Hyesan City, Jagang province
- JULY 27, 2001North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
The UN's Human Rights Committee welcomed the fact that...
The UN's Human Rights Committee welcomed the fact that North Korea had cut the number of offences carrying a death penalty to five from 33 but noted that four of these offences were largely political
- JULY 22, 2001North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
China has launched a campaign of forced repatriation...
China has launched a campaign of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees, according to the international humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders