North Korea has been busy enforcing its northern border with China, new images from a human rights group show.
The private country spent time during the pandemic to seal its border which “drastically reduced” movement across the border as well as trade, Human Rights Watch says, describing the situation as “intensifying repression”.
The group urged UN member states to “immediately address” North Korea’s isolation.
The border was recently reopened to improve trade with China after leader Kim Jong-un reinforced security measures during the pandemic.
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The report describes the move as “overboard, excessive, and unnecessary”.
Using satellite images, photos show 282km of new fences in areas they focused on had been constructed, as well as enhancing 260km of borders that were already in place.
Images taken between 2019 and 2023 show new guard posts, and buffer zones and cover about a quarter of the northern border of the country.
The group claims stricter rules have been enforced including shoot-on-sight for border guards.
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It noted an increase in the number of facilities in the area, with 38 guard posts first being identified to the 6,500 in place in the latest photos.
Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at HRW said leader Kim Jong-un should “end the policies that have essentially made North Korea a giant prison, reopen its borders for trade, relax internal travel restrictions, and allow monitored international emergency assistance”.
A North Korean defected allegedly said a relative back home detailed how rice and wheat was no longer being smuggled inside, also making it difficult for escapees to send money back to support loved ones, the report claims.
Another person, who left North Korea, claimed relatives are “more worried of starving to death than dying of Covid-19” during the pandemic.
The group estimates at the beginning of last year, only one in 10 money brokers were able to send money from the South to the North, compared to pre-pandemic reports.
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