Executions for consuming banned media rise in North Korea: UN

The North Korean government is increasingly executing civilians, including people found to be consuming unapproved foreign media, according to a report from the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Pyongyang has continued to exercise significant control over the population and severely restrict the rights and freedoms of its population, and that has only gotten more intense over the last decade. The North Korean government has benefited from evolving surveillance technologies, while punishments have also become more severe, according to the report.

At least six new laws have been passed in the last decade that expand the eligibility of a death penalty sentence, the report found, which include offenses that do not meet the threshold requirements under international law...