North Korea - Crackdowns, Public Executions on Sino-Korean Border

Chosun Ilbo (South Korea) ^ | March 10, 2005 | Kang Cheol-hwan

[HAL9000]

North Korea has conducted a brutal crackdown including public executions of human traffickers and cellphone owners in the Sino-Korean border town of Hoeryeong, North Hamgyeong Province, witnesses said. There are rumors that clandestine footage of the executions has been smuggled out of the country. Hoeryeong is one of the major defection routes out of North Korea and the site of a recently dismantled concentration camp.

A North Korean administrative official who recently defected to the South said there were three rounds of arrests aimed at “anti-socialist groups” in the Hoeryeong area between January and February this year by squads made up of agents of the State Safety and Security Agency, the Ministry of Public Security and police.

The defector said the roundup targeting anti-socialist elements linked to China happened at the direct orders of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Three individuals were executed for human trafficking and trying to sell U.S. military dog tags on Feb. 28 and March 1.

The defector said a judge on Feb. 28 read the sentence aloud. “In times made difficult by the vile anti-DPRK schemes of the U.S. and their South Korean puppets, anti-party counterrevolutionaries who damaged the authority of the party and Fatherland will be executed," he quoted the judge as saying. Nine women implicated in human trafficking were given prison sentences.

Other defectors said 63 households -- about 300 people -- were sent into forced exile in remote mountainous regions in South Hamgyeong Province such as Jangjin and Bujeon counties. One said that secretly filmed footage of the Feb. 28 executions was smuggled abroad.

Meanwhile, a North Korean official who visited China earlier this year said work on dismantling the notorious Political Prison Camp No. 22 was completed late last year. Work on dismantling the camp began in 2003. The official said the camp was taken down because a large-scale riot broke out there in October 2003 and because satellite photos of the camp had drawn the interest of the international community.

Lee Myeong-cheol (not his real name), a defector from Hoeryeong, said it seemed the political prisoners kept at the Heoryeong camp were moved to a prison in Yodeok. The Hoeryeong camp was North Korea’s largest, with about 50,000 inmates. About rumors that the camp had been dismantled, a South Korean National Intelligence Service official said Thursday there was information along those lines, but it needed to be confirmed.

[SevenofNine]

WHOA Hal pinging North Korea news list

I not surprise Kim Jong 11 feeling roany lately LOL!

[Billthedrill]

North Korea has conducted a brutal crackdown including public executions of human traffickers and cellphone owners...

If the cellphone owners were driving SUV's at the time, I say hang 'em high.

[MJY1288]

Tyrants around the Globe have been placed on notice.... Freedom is on the march and it can't be stopped. When oppressed people stand up in mass these days, they know that we are committed to the cause of Freedom, and they know Bush says what he thinks and means what he says

[PhilDragoo]

“In times made difficult by the vile anti-DPRK schemes of the U.S. and their South Korean puppets, anti-party counterrevolutionaries who damaged the authority of the party and Fatherland will be executed," he quoted the judge as saying.

Vile schemes? All we did was let Hitlery go over there. Apparently she's polarizing in unexpected places.

[freebilly]

North Korea has conducted a brutal crackdown including public executions of human traffickers and cellphone owners

Is this a good or bad thing...?

[conshack]

I am here in Seoul, South Korea and have heard nothing about this. This would definitely upset the South Koreans.

[carumba]

You know the country where you live sucks when:
You can't own a gun.
You can't own a cellphone.
You can't own farmland.
You can't keep the money you earn.
You can't tell political jokes.
You can't openly criticize a loser like Il Jong.
You have to eat pine cones and tree bark every spring.
You consider eating the neighborhood orphan next week.

[familyop]

Look at the source and link at the top of the post above (Chosun Ilbo).

[mbennett203]

"You know the country where you live sucks when:"

Even China is an acceptable living alternative to it.

[potlatch]

Vile schemes? All we did was let Hitlery go over there.

LOL, could it be that they recognize 'vile'??