N. Korea raises number of criminal charges subject to death penalty: report

North Korea has increased the number of criminal charges subject to the death penalty to 16 from 11 by revising the penal code several times between 2022 and 2023, a report showed Friday. Since revising the criminal law in May 2022, North Korea has further amended it three times, including the latest revision in December 2023, according to the report by the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU). North Korea newly added five criminal charges that could lead to the death penalty as a maximum sentence, when compared with the revisions in the penal code between May 2022 and December 2023, according to the report. Anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, as well as illegal manufacturing, use and transfer of weapons, ammunition and explosives, fall under such charges. The report said North Korea seems to be strengthening state control and punishment over the management of ammunition and explosives in a bid to help fulfill the country's five-year weapons development project and better protect the Nor th's leader Kim Jong-un and his family. "North Korea has revised the criminal law in a way that bolsters the regime's security," it said, adding that the move points to instability in the North Korean regime. Meanwhile, the KINU said North Korea had erased unification-related clauses in the penal code even before a key party meeting in December 2023, when Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other." At a year-end party meeting, Kim said there is no point in seeking reconciliation and unification with South Korea, calling for removing unification references. Source: Yonhap News Agency