LGBT rights in North Korea

Criminal laws

The criminal code does not expressly prohibit private, noncommercial, adult and voluntary acts of homosexuality. The minimum age of consent for sexual conduct would appear to be sixteen years old, although the law seems to only directly apply to heterosexuality.

A de facto ban on homosexuality or non-conforming gender expression may come from a vaguely worded law that bans anything deemed by the government to be "against the socialist lifestyle." It has been reported by The Korea Times that North Korea has executed homosexuals under this law.

Constitutional law

The Constitution of North Korea, last revised in 2013, does not explicitly address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Constitution does broadly guarantees its citizens many civil, cultural, economic and political rights, including "enjoy equal rights in all spheres of State and public activities".

Family policy

Since the 1990s, the North Korean government has reportedly been willing to "look the other way" with regards to premarital sex and adultery, although this degree of social liberalism does not seem to apply to LGBT people.

Media control and censorship

The state-controlled media in North Korea treats homosexuality as vice or bad habit practiced among foreign capitalists, especially Americans. Access to foreign press, publications, books, films, T.V. shows, computer software, webpages and other media is tightly controlled by the government.

No positive depiction of LGBT people or endorsement of LGBT rights is permitted. Voice of America's Korean Service has stated that any public discussion about homosexuality is highly taboo, if not illegal.

Military

Military law mandates celibacy during the first 10 years of service for all enlistees. 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.

Politics and propaganda

North Korea opposed both the UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity, which called for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, and the exclusion of sexual orientation as discriminatory grounds for execution. Its precise reasons for doing so remain unclear.

North Korean propaganda, much like the state-controlled media, almost always depicts homosexuality as a characteristic of western (and particularly American) moral degeneracy. In the short story "Snowstorm in Pyongyang" (평양에서 눈보라, published 2000), captured crewmen of the USS Pueblo implore their North Korean captors to allow them to engage in gay sex.

"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 Jonathan and me 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."

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 official Korean Central News Agency responded with an article that included homophobic insults against report author Michael Kirby, who is openly gay. The KCNA's article went on to state that gay marriage "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 gay [sic] to sponsor dealing with others' human rights issue."

Culture

Defectors have testified that most North Koreans are unaware that any sexual orientation other than heterosexual exists. Most homosexuals only realized after they defected that the idea of homosexuality exists.