A South Korean newspaper released a report on Tuesday concerning multiple public executions for petty crimes that allegedly took place in seven cities earlier this month.
A source close to the inner workings of the North Korean government reported to Seoul daily JoongAng Ilbo that around 80 people were publicly killed on Sunday, Nov. 3 in seven North Korean cities, excluding the capital Pyongyang. Citizens were executed for such minor offenses as watching South Korean movies, distributing pornography, or getting caught in possession of a Bible.
JoongAng Daily reported that about 10 people were executed in each city, which included Wonsan in Kangwon Province and Pyongson in South Pyongan.
According to witnesses in the western port city of Wonsan who spoke with JoongAng Daily, eight citizens were tied up to stakes at a stadium in the area. Heads shrouded by white cloth bags, the people were then shot by a machine gun firing squad. Wonsan officials reportedly rounded up around 10,000 people at Shinpoong Stadium to have them watch the executions.
"I heard from the residents that they watched in terror as the corpses were riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards," the source told JoongAng.
The people killed in Wonsan mostly had committed crimes involving illegally trafficking South Korean videos, holding Bibles, or working as prostitutes. Immediate members of family and suspected accomplices were transported to prison camps.
North Korea analyst with The International Crisis Group in Seoul Daniel Pinkston told The Telegraph that moving next-of-kin to the labor camps is an oft-employed tactic the government in Pyonyang uses to deter citizens from breaking the law.
"Reports on public executions across the country would be certain to have a chilling effect on the rest of the people," Pinkston said. "All these people want to do is survive and for their families to survive. The incentives for not breaking the law are very clear now."
Analysts are still unsure as to why the executions began so abruptly. JoongAng reported that the group killings happened in cities that are rapidly developing economically, according to the source.
