Tag: executions

I always caveat information like this coming from activist groups because it is so hard to know with certainty what is going on in North Korea:

 Executions rose sharply in North Korea for offenses including watching South Korean cultural content during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report showed Tuesday.

The report, released by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based NGO, examines executions and death sentences over the 13 years of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s rule from 2011 to 2024.

Of the 144 confirmed executions during the period, 65 occurred after the North closed its borders at the start of the pandemic. The findings are based on testimonies from 265 North Korean defectors and reporting from five media organizations covering North Korea through in-country contacts. SEOUL, April 28 (Yonhap) — Executions rose sharply in North Korea for offenses including watching South Korean cultural content during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report showed Tuesday.

The report, released by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based NGO, examines executions and death sentences over the 13 years of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s rule from 2011 to 2024.

Of the 144 confirmed executions during the period, 65 occurred after the North closed its borders at the start of the pandemic. The findings are based on testimonies from 265 North Korean defectors and reporting from five media organizations covering North Korea through in-country contacts.

Executions had declined from 2015 to 2019 amid heightened international scrutiny following the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea, according to the report.

But they surged again after the COVID-19 border closure in 2020. Over the five years that followed, executions and death sentences rose by 116.7 percent and the number of individuals affected also rose by 247.7 percent. Notably, executions linked to South Korean cultural content, including K-dramas, films and K-pop, as well as religious practices, surged by 250 percent after the border closure, the report said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that North Korea has supposedly expanded the number of laws they can execute you for. I think all foreign tourists contemplating visiting North Korea need to keep this in mind:

North Korea is expanding its list of crimes punishable by death, according to reports.

Supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime expanded the list of offenses warranting the death penalty from 11 to 16 via revisions of criminal law, according to Yonhap News Agency.

New offenses warranting execution as a punishment include: anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, illegal manufacturing, and the illicit use of weapons are included in the new codes. 

Fox News

You can read more at the link.

Executions like this is why many of the ruling elite in South Korea are supposedly becoming disillusioned with the Kim regime:

 South Korea’s spy agency said Wednesday it is closely monitoring signs of North Korea executing multiple officials to hold them accountable over heavy flood damage earlier this year.

At an emergency party politburo meeting in late July, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he will punish officials for the damage from heavy rains that flooded areas in the northern provinces of Jagang and North Phyongan and displaced thousands.

The National Intelligence Service said it is closely monitoring the situation after detecting signs of the executions.

Kang Pong-hun, the former chief secretary of the Jagang Provincial Committee of the North’s ruling party, is believed to be possibly among the executed officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This report is sourced from one anonymous South Korean government official so who knows how true this claim is:

North Korea executed around 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas, as shown in a report from TV Chosun. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

North Korea has reportedly executed around 30 teenage students for watching South Korean dramas.  
  
Citing a South Korean government official, local cable channel TV Chosun reported on Thursday that the North Korean authorities publicly shot the middle school students last week for allegedly watching South Korean dramas stored on USBs. 
  
These USBs allegedly had been sent via balloons by North Korean defector groups from Seoul last month.

Joong Ang Ilbo

What has been confirmed is that North Korea does harshly punish those who are caught watching South Korean dramas:

The North’s Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, enacted in December 2020, mandates the death penalty for those distributing South Korean media and up to 15 years in prison for viewers.  
  
The law also targets books, songs and photos, with a clause that imposes up to two years of forced labor for using South Korean speech or singing styles. 
  
Last month, to curb the spread of South Korean culture within their borders, North Korean authorities sentenced some 30 teenagers, around 17 years old, to life imprisonment and death. 

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that it took this long for this massacre to be confirmed:

This photo, released on Wednesday by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, shows the cemetery of Christians who were massacred by North Korean soldiers at Byeongchon Holiness Church in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province.

Dozens of Christians were tortured and killed en masse at a church in Nonsan by communist soldiers during the Korean War, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Wednesday.

After two years of investigation into the case, the commission confirmed that 54 Christians, including 29 minors, were murdered for their faith at Byeongchon Holiness Church by communists between July and September 1950.

After taking control of the city in South Chungcheong Province in July, within just one month after their invasion on June 25, 1950, North Korean soldiers initially tortured and killed three leading figures at the church.

But just before retreating from the region, following the successful U.N. Command mission at the Battle of Incheon, North Korean soldiers massacred the remaining church members and their families in late September, the investigation concluded. Thirty of the victims were women.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the article says that over 1,700 Christians in total were executed during the war and many of them by communist sympathizers in South Korea that allied with North Korea.

It looks like things really are returning back to normal in post-COVID North Korea:

North Korea is witnessing an escalation in terror, as the totalitarian state has increasingly relied on public executions, a move by its dictator Kim Jong-un to strengthen his grip over national governance.

According to reports citing an informed source with insights into North Korean internal affairs, the number of public executions has been massively increased. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea saw an average of about 10 public executions annually, but over the past year, this number has surged to an estimated 100 or more.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea took measures to reduce public executions significantly in a bid to prevent the spread of infections. However, with the pandemic subsiding and human interactions increasing, these gruesome acts have resurged.

“North Korea public executions occur relatively frequently,” Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Department of Reunification Strategy Studies at the Sejong Institute, said.

“These executions cover a wide range of cases, including heinous crimes, drug smuggling, and, in rare instances, individuals caught producing and selling prohibited content, including South Korean dramas.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The usual caveats apply when it comes to news from North Korea due to the inability to confirm the rumors that come out of the place. With that said I can definitely imagine this execution happening considering the importance of isolating the population from outside information:

Authorities in North Korea executed the owner of a fishing fleet in front of 100 boat captains and fisheries executives for secretly listening to broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and other forbidden media outlets while at sea, sources in the country told RFA.

The fishing boat captain, who picked up the habit of tuning in to broadcasts from abroad while in the military, confessed to having listened to the U.S. government-funded media outlet for more than 15 years, after he was turned in by a resentful crewman at his base in the northeastern port city of Chongjin.

Radio Free Asia via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but has anyone in the media bothered to ask President Moon what he thinks about executing people for listening to the radio?

Kim Jong-un is supposedly feeling the pressure of sanctions and the pandemic which if true only increases the odds of him starting a provocation cycle out once the new U.S. Presidential administration takes power:

Anchor: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reported to have had at least two people executed in an irrational response to the combined pressure of sanctions, COVID-19 and flood damage. That’s according to lawmakers who attended the National Intelligence Service’s briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee on Friday.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: 

[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“Kim Jong-un is displaying an excessive anger and taking irrational measures [over the pandemic and its economic impact].” 

South Korea’s intelligence agency says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is responding “irrationally” to the economic difficulties the regime is facing, such as inflation and a decline in industrial activity.

According to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the parliamentary intelligence committee, the National Intelligence Service(NIS) reported the situation to lawmakers on Friday, including details of the recent execution of a foreign currency changer in Pyongyang.

[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“For example, North Korea executed a high-profile money changer in Pyongyang in late October after holding the person responsible for falling exchange rates… Other irrational measures include North Korea banning fishing and salt production at sea to prevent sea water from being infected with the virus.”

Sources explained the North Korean won-dollar exchange rate has fallen as Pyongyang banned the use of the U.S. dollar at home in a bid to curtail inflation.

North Korean people can no longer spend U.S. dollars to purchase smuggled goods either due to the strict Sino-North Korea border closure amid the coronavirus pandemic.  

Rep. Ha quoted the intelligence agency as saying that another key official was also executed in August for violating a ban on imports amid toughened quarantine control measures caused by the pandemic.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

There have been so many false reports about the North Korean regime I find this report to be just another likely click bait headline:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly executed a general accused of plotting a coup by throwing him into a piranha-filled fish tank.
The unnamed general was said to be the latest victim of the dictatorial leader, who has executed numerous aides, including his envoy to the US in May.
The general was allegedly killed inside a giant piranha tank built inside Kim’s Ryongsong Residence, in Pyongyang, after being accused of plotting a coup, the Daily Star reported.

It is claimed the general had his arms and torso cut open with knives before being thrown into the tank, which was filled with hundreds of piranhas imported from Brazil, it is reported.  

Daily Mail

You can read more at the link.