Hundreds of North Korean public execution sites identified by Seoul-based human rights organisation Transitional Justice Working Group
- Four in five escapees interviewed had witnessed such events, report reveals
- More than half said they had been forced to watch
As a boy of about 9 or 10, Kang Chun-hyok waded between grown-ups’ legs and made his way to the front of a crowd of hundreds assembled near a brick factory in his hometown, not far from North Korea’s border with China.
Six soldiers aimed their rifles at the condemned man, who looked like he could barely walk. Each fired three shots, and then it was over. The man’s crime: stealing copper wires from power lines, a state property.
“I was curious, and wanted to pick up shell casings. But I was shocked,” recalled Kang, now 33, who fled North Korea in 1998 and lives in Seoul. “The scene was so real, I was so young.”
He is far from alone. Four in five North Korean escapees interviewed for a new report by a South Korea-based research group said they witnessed a public execution in their lifetime. More than half said they had been forced to watch one.
Ever since US President Donald Trump’s dramatic pivot to personal diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in early 2018, both US and South Korean officials have tiptoed around mentioning the North Korean regime’s human rights record for fear of upending talks.
