THE North Korea is executing people for drugs, for redistributing news from inside South Korea and for religious activities as it suppresses the human rights and freedom of its citizens, Seoul said in a report today.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles Seoul-Pyongyang affairs, based the 450-page report on testimonies gathered from 2017 to 2022 from more than 500 North Korean defectors.

The report details egregious state abuses of rights in prisons and elsewhere, including public executions, of torture and arbitrary arrests.

As the ministry said in the report, “executions are carried out for actions that do not warrant the death penalty, such as crimes related to drugsredistribution video of South Korea and for religious activities as well as activities related to superstitions’.

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Deaths and torture often occur in detention facilities, and some people have been summarily executed after being caught trying to cross the border, according to the ministry.

The South Korean government’s findings, however, are consistent with United Nations investigations and reports from non-governmental organizations.

In corresponding reports it is stated that with death any North Koreans found are threatened have “foreign influences”, such as getting western haircuts, watching foreign TV programs and porn, or even having children’s birthday parties according to western standards.

North Korea, for its part, has rejected criticism of the treaties’ human rights record, saying they are part of a “conspiracy” to topple its leadership.