From Pyongyang to Ashgabat: A Comparative Analysis of Authoritarianism in North Korea and Turkmenistan

By Lim Yong-myong, Former HRNK Research Intern
Edited by Greg Scarlatoiu, President & CEO of HRNK

          North Korea and Turkmenistan are both widely considered amongst the most oppressive regimes in the world.[1] While North Korea’s oppression is more well-known due to their repeated threats against many countries, including the United States, Turkmenistan’s oppressive system is far less studied and understood. This piece will compare the authoritarian regimes of North Korea and Turkmenistan, examining how each maintains control over its population.
 
          Turkmenistan, a post-Soviet country of 6 million people in Central Asia, is routinely rated as one of the least free countries in the world by Freedom House and The Economist’s Democracy Index. For almost two decades, the country has been ruled with an iron fist by the Berdimuhamedov Family. Before the Berdimuhamedov family, Turkmenistan was ruled by Saparmurat Niyazov, who famously banned car radios, ballet, and video games.[2] Elections in the country are largely for show, Turkmen citizens are restricted from leaving the country, freedom of speech and expression are almost non-existent, and the ruling family demands complete support from the people. Similarly, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim Family since 1948, who have presided over some of the most horrific human rights abuses of the modern world. From imprisoning entire families, forced labor camps, and no freedom of speech, to severe restrictions on access to food, health care, and economic opportunity, North Korea’s human rights abuses are numerous. 
 
          The authoritarianism of Turkmenistan and North Korea have similar origins. Turkmenistan's relationship with communism and authoritarianism began after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when Bolshevik forces extended control over Central Asia. By 1924, Turkmenistan became a Soviet Socialist Republic, integrating Marxist-Leninist principles with local governance. Soviet rule imposed collectivization, atheism, and centralized planning, deeply shaping Turkmen society until independence in 1991.
 
          North Korean communism emerged after Japan’s defeat in World War II, when Soviet forces occupied the North and installed Kim Il-sung, a former guerrilla fighter. Influenced by Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism, Kim established a one-party socialist state in 1948, blending communism with Korean nationalism and developing the Juche ideology of “self-reliance.”
 
Restrictions on Movement
           A key similarity between Turkmenistan and North Korea is that both heavily restrict their citizens from leaving their respective countries, which is in violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[3] It is a crime for North Koreans to leave the country without permission.[4] Similarly, Turkmenistan seeks to restrict its citizens from leaving the country. It is believed that Turkmen authorities are worried about their declining population because of emigration and decreasing birth rates, so they have attempted to make it harder for people to leave the country and for their citizens to remain abroad for an extended period of time. Starting in 2023, Turkmenistan ceased to renew passports of its citizens living abroad. This was done to try to force Turkmens living abroad to have to return to Turkmenistan, since having invalidated passports would force them to live illegally in their new country.[5] Additionally, Turkmenistan has taken measures to prohibit its citizens from leaving the country to attend foreign universities. It was also reported in 2018, that “young women were banned from leaving the country, and then all citizens under the age of 40 were removed from flights en masse.”[6]
 
Religious Persecution
               In Turkmenistan, Muslims and religious minorities face systematic persecution under the guise of combating extremism and enforcing mandatory military service. The government has accused numerous Muslims of “Islamic extremism,” subjecting them to closed trials, long prison sentences, and severe torture. These accusations are usually untrue, and the government levies those accusations against those they view as a threat to the regime. At the notorious Ovadan-Depe and Seydi Labor Camps, prisoners endure routine beatings, solitary confinement, and inhumane conditions. In one 2013 case, at least 20 Muslims were arrested and later tortured, with several dying in custody. Followers of the Kurdish theologian Said Nursi and Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen have also been targeted, particularly after the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Dozens of Gülen supporters were imprisoned, tortured, and given lengthy sentences, some of whom died under suspicious circumstances.[7]
 
        Jehovah’s Witnesses, though not banned, are persecuted for their refusal to perform military service. Lacking a civilian alternative, conscientious objectors are criminalized under Article 219(1) of the Criminal Code. Since 2018, at least 22 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been imprisoned, with eight still held in the harsh Seydi Labor Camp. The state’s hostility includes threats, physical abuse, and extended sentences, as seen in the cases of Bahtiyar Atahanov and Serdar Dovletov. Despite mass presidential pardons, Jehovah’s Witnesses are excluded, and penalties have grown more severe. Conditions in detention are dire, with overcrowding, poor sanitation, and widespread illness such as tuberculosis. These actions reflect a broader campaign of religious repression, where beliefs outside state-sanctioned Islam or the military ethos are met with violence and imprisonment.[8]
 
        A 2020 white paper by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) documented 1,411 cases of religious persecution in North Korea between 2007 and July 2020, including 126 killings and 94 disappearances, based on defector testimonies and other sources.[9] While a few state-sanctioned religious institutions, such as churches, exist—mainly in Pyongyang—they are tightly controlled by the government and primarily serve as showcases for foreign visitors. Unauthorized religious activity is harshly punished, and citizens are encouraged to report anyone possessing religious materials or engaging in unapproved worship.
 
             Defectors report that religious practitioners live in fear, often hiding their beliefs even from close family, due to the risk of being labeled disloyal and subjected to arrest or worse. Some clandestine religious activity reportedly occurs, including the distribution of unapproved Christian materials, although the scope of underground churches remains uncertain.[10]
 
           The United States, which lacks diplomatic relations with North Korea, continues to raise concerns about religious freedom through multilateral forums and bilateral engagement with other nations. In December 2023, the U.S. co-sponsored a UN resolution condemning North Korea’s systemic and gross human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions of individuals practicing religion or free expression. Since 2001, North Korea has been designated a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act, with accompanying sanctions reaffirmed most recently in November 2022.[11]
 
Food Insecurity 
               Turkmenistan and North Korea both have issues with food insecurity; however, it appears that North Korea has worse food insecurity than Turkmenistan. According to Human Rights Watch, the average Turkmen family spends 70%-80% of their income on food. Additionally, many people “spend several hours a day waiting in lines for subsidized food, and the lines and unpredictability of food supply cause great stress.”[12] While food insecurity exists in Turkmenistan, it does not appear to be as severe as food insecurity in North Korea. Widespread famine has been documented in North Korea, while there are no reports of famine in Turkmenistan. In 2023, a BBC reporter interviewed a North Korean woman who said “she knew a family of three who had starved to death at home.”[13] Furthermore, a UN report from 2022 indicated that over 45% of North Koreans were undernourished.[14] A possible explanation for North Korea having more food insecurity is that Turkmenistan has immense natural gas wealth and has a rather small population, which likely makes it easier for the Turkmen regime to feed its people. At the same time, Turkmenistan appears more concerned about their international image than North Korea. Turkmenistan likely cares about its image because it needs markets to sell its natural gas, and if there were widely documented and publicized human rights abuses in the country, many Western nations may be less willing to import natural gas from the country.[15]
 
Censorship and Propaganda
          Another area where North Korea and Turkmenistan share many similarities is media and information. Media censorship and propaganda in North Korea and Turkmenistan serve as key tools for authoritarian control, yet they slightly differ in degree, strategy, and underlying ideology. In North Korea, the media is entirely state-owned and tightly regulated by the Korean Workers’ Party, with no access to foreign news or the global internet.[16] The regime maintains an isolated domestic intranet and uses propaganda to uphold the image of the Kim dynasty, promote Juche, and vilify foreign adversaries. Propaganda in Turkmenistan centers on the glorification of the president, especially under Saparmurat Niyazov and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, often portraying them as wise, athletic, and powerful. The content emphasizes Turkmen identity, nationalism, and neutrality in global affairs rather than external threats. While both regimes suppress dissent and flood public space with leader-focused propaganda, North Korea appears to enforce a deeper level of information control. Civil society and political activism are nearly non-existent in Turkmenistan and North Korea. Both countries have a cult of personality based around the ruling families. Statues, memorials, and folklore glorifying the leaders are put on display throughout both countries. And yet, Turkmenistan allows slightly more exposure to the outside world and uses softer cultural messaging. Ultimately, both states use media to construct political legitimacy and suppress alternative narratives, but North Korea's approach is more totalitarian and militarized, whereas Turkmenistan’s is more symbolic and personality driven. 
 
        The authoritarian origins of North Korea and Turkmenistan stem from different historical contexts, yet both were influenced by the Soviet Union, and its Stalinist ideology. North Korea’s authoritarian system was established in the aftermath of World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was divided and the Soviet Union installed Kim Il-sung as the leader of the northern zone in 1945. Kim quickly consolidated power, eliminated rivals, and founded a one-party state under the Korean Workers' Party. By the early 1950s, after the Korean War, North Korea had become a tightly controlled totalitarian regime centered around Kim’s cult of personality, reinforced by the ideology of Juche. In contrast, Turkmenistan’s authoritarianism emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Saparmurat Niyazov, the former Communist Party leader of the Turkmen SSR, declared himself president for life and rebranded himself as "Turkmenbashi" (Father of the Turkmen). Drawing on Soviet structures, he established a hyper-personalized dictatorship marked by extreme nationalism, heavy censorship, and a bizarre cult of personality. Niyazov wrote a book called the Ruhnama, which focused on ethics and Turkmen culture. For many years this book was treated as a religious text that was required to be taught in school. People even needed to pass an exam on their knowledge of the Ruhnama to get their driving license.[17] Unlike North Korea’s dynastic, militarized origins, Turkmenistan's authoritarianism grew out of a post-Soviet power vacuum and was less ideological, relying instead on personal loyalty, oil wealth, and state-controlled symbolism. While both regimes centralized power and suppressed dissent, North Korea’s origins are rooted in revolutionary communism and geopolitical division, whereas Turkmenistan’s stem from a post-colonial continuity of Soviet-style governance that has been transformed into a highly personalized autocracy.
 
Foreign Policy
          A key difference between North Korea and Turkmenistan is the way they approach foreign relations and security. Turkmenistan is an officially neutral state that seeks to maintain cordial relations with all countries. While Turkmenistan has been quite isolated for decades, it has maintained relations with all major countries. It also appears Turkmenistan is attempting to reduce its isolation from the world by increasing foreign investment and making it easier for tourists to visit the country.[18] This is in contrast to North Korea, which is hostile to many nations and poses challenges to global security. North Korea also supports various hostile actors that are opposed to the West, including Russia, Iran as well as Iran’s terrorist proxies.[19] The difference in how these two countries approach international relations is a key reason that North Korea is much more well-known on the global stage, albeit for sinister reasons. 
 
            In conclusion, North Korea and Turkmenistan represent two of the most repressive authoritarian regimes in the world, each of which has been shaped by distinct historical trajectories, but are regrettably united in their extreme curtailment of human rights and freedom. Both countries emerged from Soviet influence, with North Korea institutionalizing its totalitarianism in the wake of World War II and Turkmenistan developing its authoritarianism after the collapse of the USSR. Despite these different origins, both regimes rely on centralized power, personality cults, censorship, and brutal repression to maintain control. Their restrictions on emigration, suppression of religious freedom, and tight media control reflect systematic strategies to isolate their populations from external influences and crush dissent.
 
           However, key differences shape their global perception and internal dynamics. North Korea, with its militarized, dynastic dictatorship and aggressive foreign policy, is a constant source of international concern for many countries, including South Korea and the United States. Its severe food shortages, nuclear weapons program, and open hostility toward the West have placed it under intense global scrutiny. Turkmenistan, on the other hand, remains less visible on the world stage, partly due to its official neutrality, reliance on natural gas diplomacy, and softer approach to propaganda. Yet, beneath this quieter facade lies a similarly brutal system, where political opposition, religious minorities, and civil society are ruthlessly suppressed. 
 
          Ultimately, the comparison between North Korea and Turkmenistan reveals not only shared patterns of repression, but also how authoritarianism adapts to different political, economic, and cultural contexts. While North Korea exemplifies a closed, militaristic totalitarian regime, Turkmenistan illustrates how a resource-rich, personality-driven autocracy can maintain tight control without attracting the same level of international attention. Both cases serve as sobering reminders of the resilience and adaptability of authoritarianism, and the ongoing challenges facing efforts to promote human rights and freedom in deeply closed societies.
 
 

Bibliography
“Citizens of Turkmenistan Being Prevented From Flying Abroad”, Times of Central Asia, May 6, 2024,https://timesca.com/citizens-of-turkmenistan-being-prevented-from-flying-abroad/

Geigenberger, Laura. “North Korea ranks dead last in latest World Press Freedom Index”, Daily NK, May 4, 2023, https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-ranks-dead-last-latest-world-press-freedom-index/

Gorokhovskaia, Yana and Cathryn Grothe. “Freedom in the World 2025,” Freedom House,  2025, https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/FITW_World2025digitalN.pdf  

Hassan, Tirana. “North Korea Events of 2023”, Human Rights Watch, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/north-korea#:~:text=North%20Korean%20law%20states%20that,between%20January%20and%20September%202023.

Ibragimova, Galiya. “Could a Woman End Turkmenistan’s International Isolation?”, Carnegie Endowment, June 27, 2025, https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/06/turkmenistan-internal-power-shift?lang=en

Kalder, Kalder.  “A dictator's guide to the universe” The Guardian,  December 29, 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2006/dec/29/adictatorsguidetotheunive

Kim, Ellen and Salamata Bah. “The DPRK-Hamas Relationship”, CSIS, March 27, 2024, https://www.csis.org/analysis/dprk-hamas-relationship

Mackenzie, Jean. “North Korea: Residents tell BBC of neighbours starving to death”, BBC, June 14, 2023,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65881803

Morton, Jason. “Religious Prisoners in Turkmenistan’s Gulag”, UNITED STATES COMMISSION on INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, August, 2020, https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2020%20Religious%20Prisoners%20in%20Turkmenistans%20Gulag.pdf

“Turkmenistan: Denial, Inaction Worsen Food Crisis”, Human Rights Watch, September 23, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/23/turkmenistan-denial-inaction-worsen-food-crisis

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[1] Yana Gorokhovskaia and Cathryn Grothe, “Freedom in the World 2025,” Freedom House,  2025, https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/FITW_World2025digitalN.pdf  
[2] Tom Parfitt, “Bizarre, brutal and self-obsessed. Now time's up for Turkmenistan's dictator” The Guardian, December 21, 2006,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/22/tomparfitt.mainsection
[3] UN General Assembly, “Resolution 217A (III), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A/RES/217(III)”, December 10, 1948, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
[4] Tirana Hassan, “North Korea Events of 2023”, Human Rights Watch, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/north-korea#:~:text=North%20Korean%20law%20states%20that,between%20January%20and%20September%202023.
[5] “Citizens of Turkmenistan Being Prevented From Flying Abroad”, Times of Central Asia, May 6, 2024,
https://timesca.com/citizens-of-turkmenistan-being-prevented-from-flying-abroad/
[6] Ibid.
[7] Jason Morton, “Religious Prisoners in Turkmenistan’s Gulag”, UNITED STATES COMMISSION on INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, August, 2020, https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2020%20Religious%20Prisoners%20in%20Turkmenistans%20Gulag.pdf
[8] Ibid.
[9] “2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: North Korea”, U.S. Department of State, 2024, https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-report-on-international-religious-freedom/north-korea/
[10] Ibid.
[11] “2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: North Korea”, U.S. Department of State, 2023, https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-report-on-international-religious-freedom/north-korea/
[12] “Turkmenistan: Denial, Inaction Worsen Food Crisis”, Human Rights Watch, September 23, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/23/turkmenistan-denial-inaction-worsen-food-crisis
[13] Jean Mackenzie, “North Korea: Residents tell BBC of neighbours starving to death”, BBC, June 14, 2023,
 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65881803
[14] Kwak Yeon-soo, “46% of North Koreans undernourished, UN report says”,,The Korea Times, March 18, 2025, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffairs/northkorea/20250318/46-of-north-koreans-undernourished-un-report-says
[15] “Turkmenistan is trying to come out of its shell”, Eurasianet, March 5, 2025, https://eurasianet.org/turkmenistan-is-trying-to-come-out-of-its-shell
[16] Laura Geigenberger, “North Korea ranks dead last in latest World Press Freedom Index”, Daily NK, May 4, 2023, https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-ranks-dead-last-latest-world-press-freedom-index/
[17] Dan Kalder, “A dictator's guide to the universe” The Guardian,  December 29, 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2006/dec/29/adictatorsguidetotheunive
[18] Galiya Ibragimova, “Could a Woman End Turkmenistan’s International Isolation?”, Carnegie Endowment, June 27, 2025, https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/06/turkmenistan-internal-power-shift?lang=en
[19] Ellen Kim and Salamata Bah, “The DPRK-Hamas Relationship”, CSIS, March 27, 2024, 
https://www.csis.org/analysis/dprk-hamas-relationship