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Inside North Korea: People still suffer legacy of pandemic-era controls

June 20, 2025

The path to freedom is harder than ever. But the North Korean people haven’t given up. Join us this World Refugee Day in offering a way forward.

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Photo: Reuters

During the pandemic, the regime took every opportunity to tighten its control under the guise of stopping the spread of COVID-19. Borders were sealed and reinforced, isolating the country and its people to an unprecedented extent. Trade was cut off, and the jandmadang—the markets that we’ve long highlighted as hotspots of change—were decimated. 

Although the pandemic feels like history, the situation remains difficult as North Koreans recover from their most challenging period for a generation.

Information from inside the country has become increasingly difficult to obtain these last few years. But a landmark 2024 report from Human Rights Watch has offered some visibility into North Korea’s intensifying repression and the increased challenges North Korean people have faced. 

Decimated Market Activity

“The prolonged border closures and restrictions on movement in-country have decimated the market activity that has become essential for the general population to access basic necessities.”

– Tomas Ojea-Quintana, then special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK in March 2022 (via Human Rights Watch)

When North Korea’s socialist economy collapsed in the mid-1990s, triggering widespread famine, ordinary North Koreans negotiated their own survival through illicit trade and smuggling. Grassroots marketization was leading to opening and change in North Korea, centered around the markets—the jangmadang.

But when the regime closed its borders in 2020, almost all trade was cut off.

Human Rights Watch shares that according to official records, by 2021 North Korea was importing only 6% of what it had been importing in 2011—a staggering decrease. But these numbers still fail to fully capture the lives and needs of ordinary North Koreans, a sentiment echoed by the former North Korean traders that spoke with Human Rights Watch:

“There was a large but unmeasurable gap between what official trade numbers show and the quantities of products ordinary North Koreans need in their daily lives. This gap, previously narrowed by informal trade, became huge when informal trade and economic activity was almost completely choked off starting in 2020.”

Intensified Border Security

We found a 20-fold increase in the number of new guard buildings or facilities since 2019, with a total of 6,820 facilities placed near new or improved fences… [and] almost 500 kilometers (over 300 miles) of new fences…”

– Human Rights Watch

Through satellite imagery analysis, Human Rights Watch reviewed 321 kilometers, or roughly one-quarter of North Korea’s northern border, to compare security measures from before and after the pandemic. 

Map of 6 areas analyzed along 321km in North Korea's northern border

Prior to 2020, approximately 230 kilometers (71%) of the 321 kilometers analyzed were fenced. But in the years since, multiple layers of fencing have been newly constructed, along with new and upgraded guard posts. Based on 2023 satellite imagery, there is now a staggering 743 kilometers (over 460 miles) of fencing within the 321 kilometers analyzed.

Along with infrastructure, in August 2020, the North Korean government created 1-2 kilometer “buffer zones” along its border with China, and instructed guards to “unconditionally shoot” on sight any person or wild animal entering the zones without permission, as “the [COVID-19] pandemic is being spread through air and items.” There were reports of at least 14 people being shot and killed between September 2020 and July 2022.

Human Rights Watch spoke with Young Mi, a former herbal medicine trader in contact with a relative in North Korea, to hear how the extreme restrictions had affected life in border areas:

“It is more the emotional environment and fear more [than the actual physical barriers] … [My relative] is scared to leave because of… a general sense of terror much stronger than a bullet or a wire fence.”

Starvation and Food Insecurity

North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world and the government has persistently struggled to ensure food security, adequate childhood nutrition, and access to medicine.”– Human Rights Watch

Chronic oppression in North Korea has created one of the most impoverished countries in the world. A 2023 UN report estimated that 46% of the population face food insecurity. Those 12 million North Koreans aren’t just numbers, but people like Eunju.

Eunju escaped from North Korea in 1999, fleeing starvation during the “Arduous March,” a propagandized name for a period of widespread famine.

“When the Arduous March began, rations from workplaces were nearly cut off. At first, we managed by selling household belongings or trading them for food, but eventually, there was nothing left to exchange. People would sigh, saying, ‘We can’t even trade our empty house for a single block of tofu.’

When spring arrived, we ate every kind of wild plant we could find, even peeling bark off pine trees, boiling and pounding it for days to make it edible. Although I managed to survive, death was everywhere. Some consumed nothing but wild plants and died from poisoning. Some were shot by soldiers while trying to steal corn from farms. Some were publicly executed for slaughtering and eating a cow. Some were orphaned street children, beaten to death for trying to steal food from others.

People lost their lives in different ways, but in the end, they all died trying to survive. The root cause was the same—severe food shortages.”

In 2021, Kim Jong Un urged the people to “wage another more difficult ‘Arduous March.’” Yet the regime continued to restrict cross-border trade and prioritize weapons development, all while neglecting domestic food production.

In the report from Human Rights Watch, Jiro Ishimaru, the director at Asiapress, shared that “In 2021, there were reports of people with disabilities and older people dying of starvation... after over three years of extreme difficulties, in April and May, there was a spike in reports of whole families and ordinary people dying of starvation in urban areas near [North Korea’s] northern border.”

Crackdowns on Foreign Media

“Simply watching [foreign] media content can result in a sentence of forced labor of over 10 years in a forced labor prison camp… Public executions of offenders are permitted, evidently to increase a sense of fear and alarm among the population”

– Human Rights Watch

The near-absolute control of information and media is one of the key ways that the regime disempowers and represses North Korean people. During the pandemic, it imposed several new laws that increase the severity of punishments for being caught with foreign media, and go as far as to restrict how individuals can express themselves.

Human Right Watch outlines the main additions:

  • Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law (December 2020) “bans people from smuggling, viewing, and distributing ‘reactionary’ and ‘anti-socialist ideology and culture’”
  • Youth Education Guarantee Law (September 2021) “bans young people from copying foreign culture and reorients them to a ‘socialist lifestyle’”
  • Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act (January 2023) “permits the authorities to punish people for using South Korean intonations or slang”

Offenders could be sentenced to 6+ years of hard labor, or “if the severity of the crime is deemed high,” the death penalty.

The timing of these new laws is no coincidence. As North Koreans face a reality that is increasingly distant from the propaganda they’ve been told to believe, foreign media has the potential to further erode the regime’s legitimacy and control.

Our North Korean friend, Yulseong, shared how foreign media impacted his perception of the the regime and his ultimate decision to leave in 2018:

“I was introduced to music and movies from other countries through my friends. For movies, I loved James Bond and other Hollywood films. While watching them, I realized that North Korea was truly a poor country, and it made me want to leave as soon as possible.

For songs, I listened to ‘Bingo’ by Turtles, ‘Pure Love’ by Koyote, and music by Jatanpung. Seeking out songs about life and love is a basic human desire. Even if people fear punishment, that desire cannot be suppressed. That’s why, even today, I believe many North Koreans continue to watch foreign content.

Lack of Access to Healthcare

“The DPRK Socialist Constitution and the country’s Public Health Law provide for free medical care to all citizens. In reality, medical supplies and medication are unavailable to most North Koreans and only those who can afford to purchase them on the private market.”

– Human Rights Watch

North Korea’s defunct healthcare system is another example of how the regime’s constraints create unnecessary hardship for North Korean people. The majority of the country’s public health system collapsed along with North Korea’s socialist economy in the 1990s. In the aftermath, the regime only prioritized hospitals in areas like Pyongyang, leaving ordinary North Koreans to fend for themselves.

According to a 2017 UN report, an estimated 33% of the population (8.4 million people) had limited access to health services, including 50% of people in rural areas.

Human Rights Watch spoke with a former North Korean doctor and nurses who escaped after 2014, who shared that, “most local clinics were only capable of diagnosing basic diseases and setting broken bones, and had barely any working tools, supplies, medicine, or electricity… medical workers relied on market activity and what their patients gave them to eat to survive.”

For our North Korean friend Lily, the most frustrating part was that all this suffering was preventable.

“When my older sister, Hye-Joo, developed acute appendicitis, there was no emergency line to call, or cars or taxis to transport her to the hospital. We loaded her onto a cart that was meant to carry produce, moving at a terribly slow pace.

Desperate to ease my sister’s pain, we exhausted every resource we had. Any surgical or medical equipment a patient needs has to be provided by the family. Gauze, painkillers, blankets–even food and bribes–may be necessary for an operation. Even then, severe shortages made it impossible to fully prepare. The surgery was performed with minimal anesthesia and makeshift sterilization. Later, my sister told me she had felt the knife cutting into her skin, and heard the doctor’s orders during the surgery.

What should have been a simple and safe procedure was a traumatic, life-threatening experience.”

Impact on this Issue

In the face of enormous challenges, we cannot be discouraged, because this work is more important than ever. 

There are still things we can and must do to strengthen forces of change. LiNK is one of the few groups still running rescue operations in the underground railroad. We’re cultivating and partnering with North Korean activists and storytellers who are leading efforts to raise global awareness for this issue. And we’re ambitiously expanding our Information Access Programs, devising new strategies and pathways to get information and technology inside North Korea to empower the people.

Join us in reaffirming our commitment to a free North Korea.

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Change has never been a linear process. But one thing we can always be certain of is the resilience and strength of the North Korean people.

39 North Koreans Now Free | Liberty In North Korea’s 2024 Annual Report

June 4, 2025

We’re excited to share LiNK’s 2024 Annual Report — a celebration of the work we accomplished together in 2024, and as a movement over the past two decades.

Read the full 2024 Annual Report here

2024 Impact Highlights

39 North Korean refugees rescued
35 resettled
140 supported in resettlement
208 empowered through LiNK programs
$4,895,367 raised
11,586,504 people reached ONLINE
2,923 people reached IN-PERSON
3 information access projects

Our Work Towards Liberty in North Korea

  • Refugee Rescues & Resettlement Support: Helping North Korean refugees reach safety and freedom, and gain stability and independence during the first years of their new lives.
  • Empowering Resettled North Koreans: Working with resettled North Korean refugees to support their success and develop their capacity as agents of change. 
  • Increasing Information Access for North Koreans: Researching, innovating, and developing initiatives to empower North Korean people inside the country with greater access to information and technology.
  • Changing the Narrative on North Korea: Focusing on the stories of the North Korean people and mobilizing a global movement of support for this issue.

Note from our CEO


It’s hard to believe it’s already been 20 years since the beginning of Liberty in North Korea and the pursuit of this ambitious vision — the day when every North Korean man, woman and child is free.

I am perpetually in awe of the strength, resilience, and determination of North Korean people. Their willingness to endure unimaginable risks and hardships transcends mere survival — it reflects a profound human yearning for freedom, and the pursuit of dignity and choice.

To date, we have rescued almost 1,400 North Korean refugees and their children from some of the most difficult circumstances in the most dangerous countries around the world; we have helped women escape forced marriages and trafficking; we have reunited families and been privileged to witness new marriages, new babies, and new dreams big and small being achieved.

We have worked with our North Korean friends to identify the tools they need to unlock their unlimited potential: from 1:1 English tutoring and educational scholarships to leadership, storytelling and advocacy training, career mentorship and grants to incubate transformative ideas.

We have invested in one of the most critical and direct areas of impact inside the country — increasing North Korean people’s access to outside information and technology.

Our work with the international media and also on a grassroots level through our chapters and advocacy fellows has changed the narrative on North Korea. We’ve redefined North Korea by its people, rather than its politics, and have created new language to talk about the issue.

As we celebrated 20 years of impact, we also reaffirmed our conviction and our commitment to seeing this vision fulfilled; to doing everything we can to support the North Korean people until we have exhausted every possible solution. And we haven’t, yet. Our work today is more urgent than ever, and I ask you to continue standing with us until this vision is fulfilled. Until the North Korean people win their freedom.

Because I know it will be in our lifetime.

With unwavering hope,
Hannah Song

North Korean Refugee Rescues & Resettlement Support

LiNK is one of the few groups that still operates in the underground railroad, forever changed by the effects of the pandemic. Our field team continues to navigate a more difficult operating environment, amidst increased restrictions and surveillance in China.

In 2024, we’re grateful to have welcomed 39 North Korean refugees and their children to freedom. As we regain momentum with rescues, our team is committed to finding ways to make rescue missions safer, reduce costs, and diversify our routes to build up the resilience of our networks.

Once North Korean refugees begin their new lives, LiNK journeys alongside them through this crucial period of transition. Whether this looks like financial assistance, home visits, or connecting people to resources and services, we help ensure a smoother, more successful resettlement experience.

  • 39 rescued
  • 35 newly resettled
  • 140 supported

Empowering Resettled North Koreans

When North Korea is finally free, North Korean people themselves will be the ones to determine the future of their country. 

As we work towards that day, LiNK invests in building the capacity of North Koreans to succeed in resettlement, reach their goals, and lead change. We identify current challenges in the defector community and develop programs to address gaps in career, education, and skill-building opportunities.

As North Koreans become leaders on campus, in their workplaces, and in their communities, it also develops their potential as agents of change on this issue. We’re already seeing the next generation of North Koreans spearheading progress with their unique talents — writers sharing their stories with global audiences, tech-savvy engineers developing information access strategies, entrepreneurs creating more opportunities for North Koreans in business, and activists speaking about North Korean human rights at the highest forums of international policy and diplomacy.

  • 208 empowered through our programs

Increasing Information Access for North Koreans

North Korea is one of the most physically and digitally isolated countries in the world. By controlling what North Koreans see and hear through propaganda, the regime disempowers them from making informed choices or scrutinizing the government. Increasing the people’s access to outside information and technology is therefore one of the most effective ways to accelerate forces of change and opening.

LiNK’s Information Access Programs (formerly known as Labs) explores this opportunity with three key areas of impact — creating and curating content tailored to the interests of North Koreans, developing technologies with built-in security to protect users, and devising strategies to increase the flow of information into North Korea. 

In 2024, we grew our small Information Access Programs (IAP) team and laid the foundation for ambitious expansion in 2025.

  • 2 technology projects
  • 1 digital security research project
  • 52 North Korean defector collaborators
  • 4 media features broadcast into North Korea (via Radio Free Asia and Voice of America)

As always, we are limited in what we can share publicly to protect end users, partners, and the projects themselves.

Changing the Narrative on North Korea

For decades, North Korea has been defined by dictators, politics, and security threats. Media outlets often perpetuate the narrative of a distant and hopeless country, playing right into what the regime wants — to stymie change and distract from the real story, the North Korean people. 

LiNK empowers North Koreans to redefine and humanize this issue through their stories. We partner with them to create original media, as well as work with international media outlets to foster a people-centered approach to reporting.

Today, we see a broader narrative on North Korea that highlights forces of change and invites international audiences to join us in taking action. North Koreans themselves are now leading the charge, creating their own documentaries, books, digital media, and art to rewrite the future of North Korea — one where every man, woman, and child is free.

  • 11,586,504 reached online
  •  2,923 reached in-person

20 Years of Impact on the North Korea Issue

  • 1,382 North Korean refugees rescued
  • 1,245 resettled in South Korea
  • 37 resettled in the U.S.
  • 1,101 empowered through our programs
  • 46.6 million people reached online
  • 350,000+ people reached in-person
  • 1,273 total media mentions
  • 1000+ LiNK Teams worldwide

"I am sending my congratulations to LiNK on its 20th anniversary. Few groups have done as much for North Koreans… Its long history is remarkable: many people have been discouraged by the lack of spectacular success, while LiNK has continued its operations, doing what was possible, often on a small scale. Such persistence is rare and commendable.
 
Most likely, North Korea will remain a challenge for a long time, and its people will need all kinds of support, including the assistance LiNK is providing. I wish LiNK continued success in its important work.”

– Andrei Lankov, historian, professor of Korean Studies at Kookmin University, author of The Real North Korea

Read the full 2024 Annual Report here

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