North Korea’s Execution Surge: Kids Forced to Watch Parents Shot for Praying or Watching K-Dramas

SEOUL — In the shadow of its sealed borders, North Korea has dramatically escalated its use of the death penalty, turning public executions into instruments of ideological terror. A new report by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based human rights organization, reveals that documented executions and death sentences surged by 117 percent between 2020 and 2024 compared with the preceding five years, even as ordinary murder cases declined sharply.

The most chilling increase involves offenses once considered marginal: religious practice and the consumption of foreign media. Capital punishment for “superstitious” acts, including Christian worship, and for watching South Korean dramas, listening to K-pop, or possessing Bibles jumped 250 percent. Public executions, often staged before crowds that include schoolchildren compelled to attend as a warning, now account for about 70 percent of cases.

Drawing on testimony from hundreds of defectors and clandestine sources inside the country, the TJWG mapped 46 execution sites used during Kim Jong Un’s rule. The data paints a portrait of a regime that exploited the global distraction of the Covid-19 pandemic — and the near-total absence of international monitors — to reassert totalitarian control through fear.

“Until the 1940s, Pyongyang was called ‘the Jerusalem of the East’ because of its vibrant religious life,” said Dr. Ethan Hee-seok Shin, TJWG’s head legal analyst. “Three generations of genocidal persecution later, those communities have been nearly eradicated. Since the pandemic, executions for religious and superstitious acts, along with foreign culture, have risen sharply to reinstate control.”

The trigger was the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law, which criminalizes not only overt religious activity but even the smuggling or viewing of South Korean entertainment. As borders slammed shut, the regime expanded executions from traditional strongholds in Pyongyang and border provinces to nearly every region of the country.

While homicide executions fell by 44 percent, political and ideological offenses filled the void. Families, including children, have been forced to watch relatives shot or hanged — spectacles designed to deter any whisper of dissent or cultural contamination.

The findings align with long-standing assessments by groups like Christian Solidarity Worldwide and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which continue to rank North Korea among the world’s worst violators of religious liberty. Yet the scale of the post-pandemic crackdown has alarmed even seasoned observers.

As Kim consolidates power ahead of any potential succession, analysts warn that these killings serve a dual purpose: eliminating perceived threats and reminding the population that loyalty to the regime supersedes all else — including faith in anything beyond the Kim dynasty.

In a country where information is tightly controlled and fear is currency, the true death toll may be higher. The international community, distracted by other crises, has largely looked away. The question now is whether renewed pressure — through sanctions, advocacy at the United Nations, or referral to international courts — can force even a marginal restraint on Pyongyang’s machinery of death. []

(Sources: TJWG Report 2026, Premier Christian News, Reuters, BBC, The Guardian, CSW)