In 2020, a large-scale reinforcement of North Korea’s 142-mile-long border with China and Russia began, according to a new review that the news agency Reuters have done with the help of satellite images and testimonies.
The world’s most closed country has become even more difficult to leave. Even before the pandemic, it was forbidden to leave the country or bring goods in and out – if discovered, the punishment was a stay in a camp or the death penalty. Nevertheless, hundreds of people chose to try to escape every year along the 140-mile border with China, and the nearly two-mile border with Russia.
During the pandemic, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un chose to further strengthen border security.
Walls, cameras and watchtowers
Reuters’ review of high-resolution satellite images shows that new or reinforced walls have been built on at least 30 miles of the border – particularly in areas that were less guarded before or where there are no mountains or other natural obstacles. What appear to be hundreds of watchtowers along the wall are also visible in the images.
As recently as 2019, 1,047 people managed to leave North Korea via China or Russia and reach South Korea, but last year there were only 67 people.
Worsening food shortages
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has led to more sanctions from the outside world and a worsening food shortage. The reinforced walls now make it even more difficult to smuggle goods into the unofficial and banned markets that 80 percent of the population rely on to buy the essentials, according to a report by the UN’s independent monitor Elizabeth Salmon.
The food shortage has worsened in recent months, partly due to increased border controls.
The country’s leader Kim Jong-Un, who has tightened controls on both official and unofficial trade, said in February that agriculture must be developed and production targets must be met.
North Korea is considered the world’s most closed country. Widespread human rights abuses occur in the country, which is a pure dictatorship led by the Kim family.
Citizens are prohibited from leaving the country, and an attempt to do so is met with internment in camps and the threat of the death penalty. In practice, the country has a system where any violation of the law is punished for three generations – which means that entire families are often in the camps, which are estimated to hold 80,000 – 120,000 people.
According to a UN report in autumn 2022 on the situation of human rights in North Korea, the situation for the citizens has further deteriorated since the pandemic.
Source: The Foreign Policy Institute’s Country Guide