LGBTQ rights in North Korea

Homosexuality and transgender issues are not formally addressed in the country's law. According to the United States Department of State, no provisions exist in North Korean law to prohibit discrimination on sexual orientation or identity; the concepts do not appear. {{As of|2025}}, there is no North Korean law that recognizes same-sex marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/18/north-koreas-only-openly-gay-defector-its-a-weird-life|title = North Korea's only openly gay defector: 'it's a weird life'|date=18 February 2016|website=The Guardian}} Additionally, Article 8 of the Family Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea states that "Marriage may be done only between one man and one woman".Bluebook | Gajokbeob 2009 [Family Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (2009)] translated in Law and North Korea by Daye Gang, https://www.lawandnorthkorea.com/.  

The 1950 criminal code (amended 2009) does not explicitly criminalize same-sex sexual activity. However, articles 193 and 262 of the amended criminal code outlaw the creation, distribution and possession of "decadent" culture and sexually explicit media as well as engaging in "obscene" activities.{{cite report|author1=((ILGA World))|author2=Lucas Ramon Mendos|author3=Kellyn Botha|author4=Rafael Carrano Lelis|author5=Enrique López de la Peña|author6=Ilia Savelev|author7=Daron Tan |title=State-Sponsored Homophobia report: 2020 global legislation overview update|edition=14th|pages=103, 328 |language=en |date=14 December 2020 |url=https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_World_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_report_global_legislation_overview_update_December_2020.pdf|publisher=ILGA |location=Geneva |archive-date=15 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215114401/https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_World_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_report_global_legislation_overview_update_December_2020.pdf}}{{Rp|page=156|quote=Article 193 of the Criminal Code (2009) prohibits the import, keeping, and

distribution of “decadent culture,” including “sexual video recordings”.

Additionally, Article 262 prohibits collective engaging in “obscene

activities”}}

In 2011, The Korea Times, a South Korean publication, reported that North Korea had executed a lesbian couple, a North Korean woman and Japanese woman, for being influenced by capitalism and "bringing corruption of public morals". In the article, the source was Free North Korea Radio, itself a project of the Defense Forum Foundation, a U.S. government sponsored nonprofit organization.{{cite web|title=North executes lesbians for being influenced by capitalism|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/09/182_95702.html|website=The Korea Times|access-date=6 February 2015|date=2011-09-29}}

According to the United States Department of State, the state news agency, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), claimed in 2014 that same-sex sexual activity was not present in the country.{{cite report |author1=((Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor)) |title=2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: North Korea|chapter-url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/north-korea/|date=2022 |publisher=United States Department of State |chapter=Section 6. Discrimination and Societal Abuses}}

The Constitution of North Korea, last revised in 2019, does not explicitly address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.{{cite web |url=http://www.novexcn.com/dprk_constitution_98.html |title=Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Full Text) 1998 |publisher=Novexcn.com |date=1998-09-05 |access-date=2012-08-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205154843/http://www.novexcn.com/dprk_constitution_98.html |archive-date=5 February 2012 |df=dmy-all }}

In 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Unification published a 584-page report "North Korean Human Rights Report". According to the report, defector testimony alleged that at least one male detainee in a detention camp was secretly executed for homosexuality in 2014.{{cite report |author=Center for North Korean Human Rights Records |author-link=Ministry of Unification|date= March 30, 2023|title=Report on North Korean Human Rights |url=https://www.unikorea.go.kr/eng_unikorea/news/Publications/ronkhr/|page=70 |docket= |access-date=September 23, 2023 |quote=Based on testimonies collected, it appears that certain detention facilities practice secret executions of their detainees. There are detention centers called 'kukeumso' managed by the Ministry of State Security where most of the detainees are transferred to political prison camps or secretly executed, and it is very rare for them to be transferred to kyohwaso [prison camp]. A defector who directly heard it from the head of the kukeumso testified that in 2014, a male detainee was secretly executed for homosexuality, and in 2013, a female detainee was secretly executed for prostitution.}} (72 in [https://www.unikorea.go.kr/cms/getFile.do?file=2023070614052237254.pdf&orgname=2023%20Report%20on%20North%20Korean%20Human%20Rights(Ministry%20of%20Unification).pdf&mgmtId=MGMT_0000004214&siteId=SITE_00003&filePath=eng_unikorea/common/file/&count=Y PDF])

The North Korean military law mandates celibacy during the first ten years of service for all enlistees, without regard to their sexual orientation or gender of any sexual partners. Reportedly, male soldiers regularly break this rule by engaging in casual heterosexual and homosexual affairs. These homosexual relationships have been described as situational sexual behavior rather than a sexual orientation. A defector has said that intimacy is particularly prevalent in cold, mountainous areas, during the ten years of mandatory service where it is impossible to have intimate interactions with women. Author Bradley Martin writes that such behavior, while not illegal, may result in execution.Martin (2006) Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, p. 521

According to the United States State Department in its 2020 report on North Korea, same-sex couples could not legally adopt children in North Korea.{{Cite web |date=2021-03-21 |title=2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Democratic People's Republic of Korea |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/north-korea/ |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=United States Department of State |language=en-US}}

In 2008 and 2011, North Korea opposed both the "joint statements on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity" at the United Nations that condemn violence and discrimination against LGBT people.{{cite web|url=http://geneva.usmission.gov/2011/03/22/lgbtrights/ |title=Over 80 Nations Support Statement at Human Rights Council on LGBT Rights |date=22 March 2011 |publisher=US Mission Geneva}}{{failed verification|date=February 2021}} Its precise reasons for doing so remain unclear.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

In his analysis of North Korean domestic propaganda, The Cleanest Race, B. R. Myers, characterized the official attitude towards homosexuality as that of it being a typical "Western" decadence.{{cite news |last1=Hotham |first1=Oliver |title=Being gay in the DPRK |url=https://www.nknews.org/2013/11/being-gay-in-the-dprk/ |work=NK News - North Korea News |date=13 November 2013}}{{cite book |last1=Myers |first1=B. R. |title=The cleanest race: How North Koreans see themselves and why it matters |date=2010 |chapter= Five: Foreigners |publisher=Melville House |location=Brooklyn, New York |isbn=1933633913 |edition=1st}} Byers used an extract from a 2000 short story, "Snowstorm in Pyongyang" ({{langx|ko|평양의 눈보라|Pyongyang ui nunbora}}), to illustrate how, in his view, North Korean perceptions contrast the decadent foreign against upright local behavior. The story was published in the North Korean literary magazine {{Transliteration|ko|Joseon Munhak}}, and depicts captured crewmen of the USS Pueblo imploring their North Korean captors to allow them to engage in gay sex.{{cite thesis|last1=Nam |first1=Jongwoo |title=The geographical construction of national identity and state interests by a weak nation-state: The dynamic geopolitical codes and stable geopolitical visions of North Korea, 1948–2010 |date=August 2012 |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | type=PhD |url=https://core.ac.uk/display/10201102}}

• {{cite magazine |last1=Jeon |first1=In-kwang |title=Pyongyang ui nunbora |magazine=Joseon Munhak |issue=November 2000 |date=2000 |pages=45–55 |trans-title=Snowstorm in Pyongyang |language=ko}}

{{blockquote

|text="Captain, sir, homosexuality is how I fulfill myself as a person. Since it does no harm to your esteemed government or esteemed nation, it is unfair for me and Jonathan to be prevented from doing something that is part of our private life."

[The North Korean soldier responds], "This is the territory of our republic, where people enjoy lives befitting human beings. On this soil none of that sort of activity will be tolerated."

|multiline=yes

|title="Snowstorm in Pyongyang", 2000}}

In 2014, after the United Nations Human Rights Council published a report on human rights in North Korea advising a referral to the International Criminal Court, the Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean state-owned news agency and arm of Propaganda and Agitation Department, responded with an article that included homophobic insults against the report's author Michael Kirby, who is openly gay. The KCNA's article went on to attack Kirby and gay marriage:{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/04/22/north-korean-state-media-slams-u-n-human-rights-report-because-it-was-led-by-a-gay-man/|first=Adam|last=Taylor|title=North Korea slams U.N. human rights report because it was led by gay man|newspaper=Washington Post|date=2014-04-22|access-date=2014-04-23}}{{cite news|url=http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201404/news22/20140422-02ee.html|work=The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)|access-date=17 August 2015|date=22 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729025304/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201404/news22/20140422-02ee.html|archive-date=29 July 2014|title=KCNA Commentary Slams Artifice by Political Swindlers}}{{blockquote

|text=... he is a disgusting old lecher with a 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality. He is now over seventy, but he is still anxious to get married to his homosexual partner.

This practice can never be found in the DPRK boasting of the sound mentality and good morals, and homosexuality has become a target of public criticism even in Western countries, too. In fact, it is ridiculous for such {{sic|gay}} to sponsor dealing with others' human rights issue.|multiline=yes

|author=Korean Central News Agency (2014)

}}

B. R. Myers, author of The Cleanest Race and an expert on North Korean propaganda, described North Korea's homophobic attack on Kirby as a long established pattern of anti-gay hate speech:{{Cite news|last=Hyeon-seo |first=Lee |date=2014-06-29 |title=North Korea's hate speech |url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2014/06/29/letters/North-Koreas-hate-speech/2991297.html |access-date=2023-05-28 |work=Korea JoongAng Daily |language=en}}

{{blockquote|1=Homosexuality is often portrayed as a form of imperialist humiliation.|2=B. R. Myers (2014)}}

Defectors have testified that most North Koreans are unaware of the concept of sexual orientation. Most defectors only realized that the ideas of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender identity exist upon arrival in South Korea. Jang Yeong-jin is the only known openly gay North Korean defector. Jang faced discrimination while in South Korea, which is itself a country that is generally conservative on LGBTQ rights.{{Cite news|last=Yoonnyung Lee|first=Julie|date=2021-03-20|title=North Korea's 'only openly gay defector' finds love|work=BBC|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56323825|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-21|archive-date=8 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220608151916/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56323825}}{{Cite news|last=Hancocks|first=Paula|date=2017-04-24|title='I could not even dream': What it's like to be gay in North Korea |archive-date=6 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006022729/https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/24/asia/north-korea-gay-defector/index.html |work=CNN|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/24/asia/north-korea-gay-defector/index.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-21}} He has said that, while same-sex affection does occur in North Korean society, not being attracted to the opposite sex is likened to an illness.{{Cite news |last=Lee |first=Julie |date=21 March 2021 |title=North Korea’s ‘only openly gay defector’ finds love |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56323825 |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321002044/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56323825 |archive-date=21 March 2021}}

Cross-dressing openly is also reported to exist, and is considered unusual but not illegal.{{cite news|title=North Korean Defector Opens Up About Long-Held Secret: His Homosexuality|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/world/asia/north-korea-defector-jang-yeong-jin-gay.html?_r=2|website=The New York Times| date=5 June 2015 |access-date=8 April 2016| last1=Sang-Hun | first1=Choe }}{{Cite web |date=2015-01-29 |title=Are there gay people in North Korea? {{!}} NK News |url=https://www.nknews.org/2015/01/are-there-gay-people-in-north-korea/ |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=NK News |language=en-US}}

{{Portal|LGBTQ|North Korea}}

• Human rights in North Korea
• LGBTQ rights in Asia
• LGBTQ rights in South Korea
• Jang Yeong-jin

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