While breaking news stories capture our attention-North Korea's recent launching of 10 ballistic missiles grabbed headlines-there's a tendency to ignore long running but dire issues such as North Korea's ongoing human rights crisis. 

On March 13, the United Nations special rapporteur on North Korea, Elizabeth Salmon, reminded us of the latter's importance. She told the UN Human Rights Council that North Korea's human rights situation "had showed no improvement and, in many instances, had degraded" over the past decade.

Her annual report to the Human Rights Council proposed measurable indicators to track North Korea's implementation of the recommendations from other countries during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a UN process reviewing each country's human rights record.

On freedom of movement, the special rapporteur documented expanded border fences, new guard posts, and intensified enforcement of domestic travel permit requirements in North Korea since Covid-19. Border guards remain under shoot-on-sight orders for anyone attempting to leave the country without authorization. Only 223 North Koreans reached South Korea in 2025. Those caught attempting to flee face torture, imprisonment, and forced labor. A North Korean woman detained in China and at risk of forced return is facing these abuses for trying to reunite her family. 

On the right to work, Pyongyang rejected every UPR recommendation on forced labor. The 2025 Labour Management Act assigns people to workplaces, effectively codifying state-directed forced labor.

These abuses may appear unrelated to the missiles dominating news feeds, but the UN high commissioner on human rights and numerous UN findings have long stressed that North Korea's security and human rights are interlinked. The country's nuclear weapons programs have relied on arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, forced labor, and severe limits on information and movement.

It's critical that countries seeking to counter North Korea's weapons programs also confront the human rights violations underpinning them. As the special rapporteur emphasized, human rights should be "an opening for engagement" and at the center of any future dialogue with North Korea.

The Human Rights Council should renew the special rapporteur's mandate. Governments should increase financial support for nongovernmental organizations conducting crucial monitoring and getting information from North Korea, particularly those affected by recent US funding cuts, and advance accountability. The high commissioner has urged states to pursue accountability, including referral to the International Criminal Court and prosecutions in other countries using the UN's repository of evidence in fair and independent proceedings.

Source: Human Rights Watch