Two North Korean women were charged with human trafficking and sentenced to death. While nine other women were sentenced to life imprisonment on the same charges.

The 11 women were among a group of around 500 North Koreans which China forcibly repatriated in October 2023. 

39-year-old Ri and 43-year-old Kang, who were executed after a public trial in the northeastern port city of Chongjin, previously helped other North Korean women in China escape to South Korea. This marks the first report of executions since China started repatriating defectors back to North Korea in October. 

According to Jang Se-yul, Head of Gyeore’eol Unification Solidarity in Seoul, Ri and Kang were sold to a Chinese adult entertainment business when they first escaped.

North Korea is intensifying its crackdown on abortion and contraception to boost its declining birth rate. 

Doctors performing abortions face severe punishments, including prison sentences of up to five years. Meanwhile, merchants who sell contraceptives are also being “punished in droves” as some had their stalls confiscated and had to pay 300,000 won (around $17.65 USD) in fine.

Although abortion has been illegal in North Korea since the 1990s, some doctors secretly help women perform abortions in their homes and charge about 30,000 won (around $1.76 USD) per abortion to supplement their small government salary. For context, this charge is worth 4.5 kilograms of rice and is the average monthly salary of a North Korean worker.

To discourage doctors from profiting in the private medical market, the government increased their monthly salaries more than 40-fold to between 80,000 and 180,000 won (around $5-$11 USD), but many doctors still opt to provide private treatments.

North Korea recently released photos of a uranium enrichment facility which produces material for its nuclear weapons.

Photos show its leader, Kim Jong-un, touring the site as he called for more centrifuges to boost his country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, suggested that the photos could serve as a "message" ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, with the aim of warning the next administration that it would be "impossible to denuclearise North Korea."

Meanwhile, the South Korean government strongly condemned the North's plans to increase its uranium production.

According to the Russian embassy in Pyongyang, the North Korean Foreign Minister, Choe Son-hui, is visiting Russia this week to attend the fourth Eurasian Women's Forum and the BRICS Women's Forum in Saint Petersburg.

In addition to participating in cultural events and sightseeing, Choe is “scheduled to deliver speeches and participate in discussions,” and Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, is also expected to attend one of the events to “address the participants.”

Choe’s trip followed shortly after the top Russian security official, Sergei Shoigu, met with Kim Jong-un during his visit to North Korea to discuss a “wide range of bilateral and international issues.”

Russia and North Korea’s tie remains strong as the DPRK’s foreign ministry recently declared that Pyongyang will continue to support Moscow in its war with Ukraine.