North Korea orders probe into wave of prison deaths

North Korea’s Ministry of Social Security has reportedly received a directive to investigate a wave of inmate deaths at correctional facilities nationwide, as authorities in Pyongyang move to identify officials responsible for prisoner abuse and neglect in 2026.

A source in North Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Thursday that central authorities issued a special directive to the ministry on June 12, ordering a comprehensive investigation into the string of deaths and signaling a sweeping personnel shake-up to follow. The Ministry of Social Security oversees North Korea’s police force and manages the country’s prison and correctional facility system.

According to the source, the directive came after a series of inmate deaths at state-run correctional facilities, ordering the ministry to fully investigate and report on death tolls at each facility, along with any abuse committed by facility managers. The source said inmates have frequently collapsed or died before completing their sentences at correctional facilities in recent months.

Poor food provisions and malnutrition are cited as leading causes of death. Because visits and outside deliveries are strictly restricted, inmates depend entirely on meals provided by the facilities, which are themselves severely inadequate. Meals reportedly consist of little more than corn rice mixed with foreign substances and salt soup, leaving inmates to suffer from malnutrition and various illnesses.

Forced labor and abuse compound the crisis

Excessive forced labor during this spring’s rice-planting mobilization season is also believed to have contributed to the rise in deaths, the source said. Rather than treating or protecting inmates who collapsed under the intense labor, police officers and guards overseeing them allegedly beat inmates accused of laziness instead.

Facilities reportedly covered up the deaths or recorded them as death by natural causes. Now that a full investigation has begun into the string of deaths, facility heads are said to be attempting to shift blame onto section-chief-level officials below them.

North Korean people familiar with conditions inside the facilities say officials who wielded unchecked power should finally face proper punishment. Others have said all police officers who treated inmates inhumanely and drove them to their deaths should be replaced and face legal punishment, so that the abuse inside the facilities can be curbed, even if only slightly.

“The mood inside the correctional facilities right now is literally like a funeral home,” the source said. “Police officers who were beating inmates until just yesterday are now anxious about facing punishment themselves.”

The source added that tension is mounting amid expectations that facility heads could also be removed from their posts, demoted, or replaced in a sweeping personnel shake-up as they are held accountable for the inmate deaths.

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