Korea North Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

North Korea-China: risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of North Koreans have crossed the 1,400-km-long border into China to escape famine, economic privation, and political oppression; the adjacent areas of northeastern China (the provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning) includes a significant Korean minority population of an estimated 2 million people; in the 2020s, North Korea has built hundreds of kilometers of new or upgraded border fences, walls, and guard posts along the border; North Korea and China dispute the sovereignty of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen Rivers 

North Korea-Japan: North Korea supports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)

North Korea-Russia: Russian troops guard the border and immediately return escapees they capture to the North Korean Government; in the 2020s, North Korea has built new or upgraded border fences and guard posts along the border

North Korea-South Korea: the Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km-wide, 257-km-long Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic incidents in the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims the Northern Limit Line as a maritime boundary

North Korea has a history of provocative regional military actions and posturing that are of major concern to the international community. These include proliferation of military-related items; ballistic and cruise missile development and testing; WMD programs including tests of nuclear devices in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2017; and large conventional armed forces. Despite high-level efforts to ease tensions during the 2018-19 timeframe, including summits with the leaders of China, South Korea, and the US, North Korea has continued developing its WMD programs and, in recent years, issued statements condemning the US and vowing to further strengthen its military capabilities, including long range missiles and nuclear weapons. 

Refugees and internally displaced persons

IDPs: undetermined (2021)

Trafficking in persons

tier rating: Tier 3 — the government of North Korea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, North Korea remained on Tier 3; the government did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking; during the reporting period, a government policy or pattern of human trafficking existed in prison camps, in labor training centers, in massed mobilizations of adults and children, and through forced labor by North Korean workers overseas; proceeds from state-sponsored forced labor funded government operations (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers—including government officials—exploit North Koreans at home and abroad; forced labor is part of an established system of political repression and a pillar of the economic system; the government subjects its nationals to forced labor in prison and labor camps, through mass mobilizations, and in overseas work; prisoners are subject to forced labor in logging, mining, manufacturing, farming, and other areas for long hours under harsh conditions; many prisoners do not survive; some children in prison camps face forced labor for up to 12 hours per day; traffickers exploit women and children in sex trafficking within North Korea; officials forcibly mobilize adults and school children to work in various sectors, including factories, agriculture, logging, mining, infrastructure, information technology, and construction; North Koreans sent to work abroad, including through bilateral agreements with foreign businesses or governments, face forced labor conditions; NGOs report overseas workers are managed as a matter of state policy and are under constant surveillance by government security agents; the government often appropriates and deposits worker salaries into government-controlled accounts; in 2017, the UN Security Council prohibited members from issuing or renewing work authorizations for North Koreans and, with limited exceptions, required repatriation; nonetheless, an estimated 20,000-100,000 North Koreans are working in China, primarily in restaurants and factories; North Korean women, lured by promises of jobs in China, are subjected to commercial sex, forced labor, abuse, or forced marriages; many North Koreans also continue to enter Russia to work informally, and some North Koreans are reportedly working in dozens of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia (2023)

Illicit drugs

at present there is insufficient information to determine the current level of involvement of government officials in the production or trafficking of illicit drugs, but for years, from the 1970s into the 2000s, citizens of North Korea , many of them diplomatic employees of the government, were apprehended abroad while trafficking in narcotics; police investigations in Taiwan, Japan and Australia during that period have linked North Korea to large illicit shipments of heroin and methamphetamine