UN wants North Korea to clarify alleged shoot-on-sight orders of anyone who crosses its northern border
- In a letter on the UNHCR website, human rights investigators have expressed concern about the alleged order
- They also asked North Korea to confirm reports it made the distribution of South Korean cultural products or sexual content punishable by death
They were referring to a report by a news site focused on North Korea, Daily NK, which published a photo of what it said was a poster describing an August 2020 proclamation prohibiting acts that impede the closure of the northern border, shared mostly with China and a smaller section with Russia.
The poster describes a 1-2 kilometre buffer zone and says any person who makes an unauthorised entry to North Korea “shall be shot unconditionally”. It also says trespassers from other countries found on the North Korean side of the Yulu and Tumen rivers will be “shot without prior warning”.
In an August 23 letter posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the special rapporteurs expressed concern about the alleged order. They also asked North Korea to confirm reports that it made the distribution of South Korean cultural products or sexual content punishable by death under a law adopted last December.
Daily NK published photos of a document that supposedly spells out the law, aimed at stemming out “reactionary thought and culture”. The site said the law prescribes the death penalty for import or distribution of cultural contents from South Korea and other “hostile” nations such as the United States and Japan and does the same for sexual material.
01:18
North Korean schools boost Covid-19 prevention measures despite ‘no confirmed cases’
