PYONGYANG. Visitors attend an opening ceremony of the 22nd Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair at the Three-Revolution Exhibition House in Pyongyang on May 20, 2019. File photo by Kim Won-jin/AFP
The OHCHR document – based on interviews with 214 North Koreans – said Pyongyang had failed to legalize people's efforts to find food and clothing outside the public distribution system, even though it was their only way to secure daily necessities. "The behavior that such market activity involves, including making international telephone calls and traveling within and across state borders is also criminalized and therefore subject to extortion," he said.
Pyongyang has been frequently condemned by the international community for decades of prioritizing the military and its nuclear weapons program over adequately providing for its people – an imbalance some critics say the UN's aid program encourages.