Data protection & privacy laws in North Korea (2026)

There is no comprehensive or sector-specific personal-data protection statute and no independent supervisory/data-protection authority. Citizens have no legal mechanism to consent to, access, correct, or contest the state's collection and use of their personal data.

The DPRK Constitution provides for inviolability of the person and home and privacy of correspondence, but the U.S. State Department reports the government does not respect these provisions and routinely monitors correspondence, telephone calls, emails, and text messages.

A September 2025 UN Human Rights Office report found surveillance of the population has become even more pervasive since the 2014 Commission of Inquiry, aided by new technology, with more laws and practices subjecting citizens to increased monitoring and control in all areas of life.

House-to-house inspections and street checks search mobile phones, storage devices and printed material without warrants to detect 'anti-socialist' content; domestic mobile devices run state-controlled operating systems that log activity and restrict files.

Laws such as the 2020 Law on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture criminalize possession/distribution of foreign media and unsanctioned phones (penalties up to death), reflecting a framework aimed at information control rather than safeguarding personal data.

Monitoring and enforcement are carried out by the Ministry of State Security and related organs without independent oversight or judicial review; there is no regulator whose mandate is protecting personal data.