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• Public executions witnessed personally
• Former North Korean was 'publicly executed'

Public executions witnessed personally

The Chosun Ilbo, (25.03.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (06.04.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The public execution in the North of North Korean defector to the South, Yu Tae Jun, who reentered the North to bring his wife out, as covered on March 17 in this weekly publication, was tragic. But public executions are so routine in the North that North Koreans witness several of them.

Those condemned to public execution brought out to execution sites, are unsightly and are gagged with stone. Family members of the condemned are sometimes made to appear at the scene of execution to charge their beloved ones with "crimes." Those publicly executed are mostly economic offenders and felons, while political criminals are executed mainly at detention camps. While being incarcerated in Yodok Political Prisoners Camp for 10 years, this journalist saw tens of public prosecutions.

North Korean authorities use public executions as a means of ruling for the purpose of planting fear among the populace and spur awareness about specific social problems. Real aspects of public prosecutions as witnessed by some North Korean defectors in the South are introduced below.

Kim In Ho (33)

Chu Sun Nam, then aged 30, was executed in public at 11:00am on November 15, 1992 near Yongdae Bridge in Sapo district of Hamhung, South Hamkyong Province. A public notice of the execution was pasted in the city, a piece of which was smuggled out to the South later. Chu Sun Nam was a discharged soldier and a member of the Workers' Party. As his parents divorced during his childhood, he had lived at his maternal parents'. After getting discharged from the army, he sold cigarettes. He shouted at his grandfather-in-law demanding money for a drink and pushed him aside when the grandfather scolded him. The old man died on the spot.

Thousands of people swarmed the execution site braving extreme coldness. I felt little sympathy toward the condemned, but I lamented at the fact that a man was being slaughtered like a dog.

Chung Nam (28)

After my elder brother had defected to South Korea while studying in the Soviet Union, our family were banished from Pyongyang to Onsong, North Hamkyong Province. Since 1996 when the food shortage was most aggravated in the North, several executions took place every month at a public execution site located on the slope of Mt. Nam in Onsong Town. Among those who were executed in public I witnessed during the two years since 1996 were a 22-year-old man who was convicted of murder in the course of stealing beans, a 47-year-old man who was caught selling a cow he had stolen from a cooperative farm, and a discharged soldier convicted of stealing 60kg of corn on several occasions in six months. I also witnessed the public executions of a 32-year-old mine worker who pushed a number of persons off the roof of a running train in an attempt to steal commodities, and a 31-year-old female accountant at a factory convicted of diverting factory goods in secret.

An Myong Chol (32)

In the North, I served as a guard at a political prisoners camp, where both public and secret executions take place. I witnessed a man in his late 20s, caught after escaping from No. 13 Kyongsong Control Office (a political prisoners camp which has since been closed) in 1988, executed in front of some 5,000 people. Over drinks with State Security Agency members, I heard about innumerous secret executions of political convicts and saw the bodies of some executed prisoners at the site of secret executions myself. Public executions within prisons take place routinely. Unlike in outside society, all inmates are required to witness them.

Yo Kum Ju (27)

I recall visiting a public execution site near Yongdae Bridge in Sapo district of Hamhung two times or so, following grownups. I vividly remember the execution of a 30-year-old man convicted of murdering a guard while stealing corn from a farm in Pukchong Town, Pukchong County, South Hamkyong Province in 1993 in front of thousands of crowds. Authorities made girl students witnessing public executions for the first time sit at the front. I was one of them. The man, fastened to a pole, crumbled forward when shot with nine bullets in the head, chest and limbs. The body, covered by a straw mat, was carried away somewhere aboard a truck.

Kim Un Chol (32)

I taught physics at a high school in Sinuiju, North Pyongan Province. I personally witnessed about five public executions. Most memorable of them is the 1996 execution of five men and women, discharged from military services, at a site near the Sinuiju airport. Two were beautiful ladies in their late 20s, who, along with three male colleagues, were arrested while selling stolen power lines to Chinese merchants. I wondered if they, criminals as they were, should have been executed in that manner. Since many were executed at one time, thousands of spectators swarmed the site, and those standing behind were desperate to see the executions stretching their necks.

Kim Myong Hak (33)

In Hyesan City, Yanggang Province alone, I witnessed public executions more than ten times, and because such events became so frequent since 1996, I had little desire to see them later. In 1997 I witnessed no less than four public executions. Because of rampant smugglers, Hyesan invites quite a number of extraordinary instructions from Kim Jong Il. Vivid in my memory is the scene of publicly executing an opium smuggler who connived with a Public Security Ministry officer (a policeman). The executions were carried out at a river bank dike behind Hyesan-dong People' (elementary) School in Hyesan City. I had little appetite to see them in person, but nevertheless went to the scene as a public security officer was being executed. Both were executed with automatic machine gun at the same time.

Kang Chol-hwan, author of this article, was formerly a prisoner of Yodok political prison camp.

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The Chosun Ilbo (17.03.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (22.03.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A former North Korean, who lived in South Korea, traveled to the Chinese-North Korean border in order to take his wife back to the South, was captured and publicly executed by the North Korean authorities.

Yu Tae-jun (31 years old) arrived in South Korea in November of 1998 and lived in Taegu City. In June of last year he traveled to China and was not heard from since. However, in the beginning this year he is known to have been executed in the South Hamgyong Province in North Korea.

It is known that the North Korean government executed many former North Koreans, however this is the first time that the victim has actually been identified. In addition, due to the fact that Mr. Yu was a South Korean citizen, the repercussions for this incident are expected to be large.

Mr. Yu was publicly executed in front of a group of North Korean citizens. It is known that he was charged with going to South Korea and committing treason against the Pyongyang government.

Mr. Yu met his wife at the border of North Korea and China, and was then captured by the North Korean National Security Guard.

Before coming to South Korea, Mr. Yu was the manager of sales at an agency that sold coal. This was a highly sought after and powerful position in North Korea. When he decided to go to South Korea, his wife rejected his proposal to go with him.

It is known that South Korean government officials were aware that the North Korean authorities captured Mr. Yu, however officials in the South have not taken action.

Mr. Yu arrived in South Korea with his five-year-old son, who is presently staying with Mr. Yu's mother in South Korea.

Mr. Yu's mother and father were elites who graduated from the Kim Chaek University of Technology (or the Kim Cheak Politechnic Institute). His father was a professor at the National Economic Institute and his mother worked at the Foreign Language Publishing House. His father died early and his mother was forced to take care of her son by herself. Mr. Yu enjoyed reading, especially Tolstoy and Shakespeare, along with other famous works of literature. In North Korea, as a child, he was occasionally able to listen to South Korean radio broadcasts. He thus became aware of the realities of the outside world and from his middle school years his eyes were opened to the deficiencies of the North Korean government.

Those close to him in Taegu said that Mr. Yu was planning to go back for his wife in North Korea.

When Mr. Yu arrived in South Korea his dream was to become a writer. Among former North Koreans in South Korea he was known as a loner.

In October, Ahn Jong-sook, Mr. Yu's mother was informed by South Korean authorities that her son had been captured by North Korea near the Chinese - North Korean border. Mr. Yu's mother arrived in South Korea two months after her son.

After the food shortage and the hardships which have arisen due to the difficulties in controlling society in the 1990's, public executions have increased in North Korea.