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On March 13, 2026, UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea Elizabeth Salmón addressed the UN Human Rights Council with a stark warning: the world's focus on Pyongyang's ballistic missiles is causing it to overlook a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding behind closed borders. Human Rights Watch, in a dispatch published March 18, amplified this call — urging states to treat North Korea's human rights record as inseparable from its security threat.
A Decade of Deterioration
Salmón's annual report documented no improvement in fundamental rights across North Korea over the past ten years. In some areas, the situation has actively worsened. The country's border security apparatus has been dramatically expanded since the COVID-19 pandemic: new fences, additional guard posts, stricter domestic travel permit systems, and shoot-on-sight orders for anyone attempting to leave without authorization.
In 2025, only 223 North Koreans managed to reach South Korea — a figure that illustrates both the effectiveness of the regime's control and the desperation of those who still try to flee. Those caught attempting to escape face imprisonment, torture, and forced labor upon return.
"North Korea's human rights situation had showed no improvement and, in many instances, had degraded over the past decade. Human rights should be an opening for engagement and at the center of any future dialogue with North Korea."
— Elizabeth Salmón, UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea, March 13, 2026
Forced Labor Codified in Law
The 2025 Labour Management Act formalized what activists had long documented: state-directed forced labor as official policy. The legislation assigns citizens to workplaces, eliminating any pretense of voluntary employment. Pyongyang explicitly rejected every UPR recommendation regarding forced labor, signaling no intent to reform.
Human Rights Watch researchers also highlighted how North Korea's nuclear weapons program is structurally enabled by human rights violations — relying on arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, surveillance, and the suppression of information that prevents any domestic accountability.
What the International Community Must Do
HRW called on the UN Human Rights Council to renew Special Rapporteur Salmón's mandate. Governments are urged to increase financial support for NGOs monitoring the situation inside North Korea — organizations that have faced severe funding shortfalls following US foreign aid cuts in early 2026.
On accountability, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has specifically urged states to pursue referral of North Korean officials to the International Criminal Court and to support prosecutions in third countries using the UN's evidence repository.
Sources
HRW: North Korea's Rights Crisis, Not Just Missiles, Needs Global Attention (March 18, 2026)
UN Human Rights Council — Special Rapporteur on North Korea
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