UN rights office in Seoul says North Korea is more closed than at any point in its past

31 October 2026

James Heenan, who heads the UN human rights office in the South Korean capital Seoul, says the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is putting up factories and hospitals, spreading mobile handsets and phone banking, and writing new law at a pace not seen before. At the same time, he told UN News, its people are more cut off from the world than at any earlier point. His team watches the country from outside its borders because almost nobody can get in. The office gives first weight to information from direct witnesses, including people who suffered violations themselves or whose relatives did. It also leans increasingly on material the government itself publishes, which has grown in volume. Heenan said hunger has not let up, that compulsory labour reaches into every household, and that the Chinese border is shut so firmly that even crossings without permission have almost ceased. He warned against treating the country as frozen in time, saying it changes constantly like any other.