Photo of a public court case in North Korea. Not related to the content of the article./ Daily NK
With the North Korean human rights resolution to be discussed at the United Nations General Assembly plenary next week, the human rights situation of North Korean residents is being re-examined. Last summer, nine men and women were executed after being caught selling beef, and there was also a case where a teenager was publicly executed for watching a Korean drama.
According to Daily NK Japan on the 14th, a total of nine people, including seven men and two women, were shot to death at an airport on high ground in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, North Korea, at 4 pm on August 30. Those executed included the head of the Yanggang Province Veterinary Quarantine Center, a salesman at the Yanggang Province Commercial Control Bureau, a farm operator, a restaurant manager in Pyongyang, and a college student who had worked as a soldier at the National Security Agency’s Checkpoint No. 10 during his military service.
Their crime is that, between 2017 and last February, they killed over 2,100 cattle that had died of disease and distributed them illegally. North Korea prohibits individuals from owning, slaughtering or selling cattle. It is said that if you break this, you will be treated as a political prisoner rather than a simple economic prisoner. Japan’s Daily NK said, “Cattle is an important means of production in North Korea, so it is rare for ordinary people to eat beef,” adding, “Some people have been shot for selling or eating beef without the permission of the authorities. “(In North Korea) beef is a ‘forbidden taste.'”
As soon as the Special Military Tribunal of the Korean People’s Army read the defendants’ charges and sentenced them to death, the nine people tied to the stake were shot to death. About 25,000 residents witnessed this scene. They were gathered at the airport and forced to watch the execution scene, surrounded by security officers and soldiers. Some eyewitnesses are said to have complained, saying, “Horrible scenes kept coming to me in my dreams,” and “Is selling beef that died of disease a crime worthy of the death penalty?”
Regulations on beef have reportedly been tightened again due to the economic downturn due to the coronavirus. Daily NK Japan quoted an inside source as saying, “The Central Party (Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party) has instructed every party branch, administrative agency, and judicial agency to thoroughly control and control private ownership, human trafficking, and killing. agricultural cattle. “Published September 11, 2020.” In addition, questions were raised as to whether it was true that the defendants had sold 2,100 cows. There is a suspicion that scapegoats have been created to control public sentiment through the politics of fear.
It has been reported that the number of public executions has increased in North Korea since the end of the coronavirus pandemic. The Tokyo Shimbun reported last October, “Before the spread of the coronavirus, the number of public executions was about 10 people each year, but it is estimated that over 100 people have been executed over the past year.” Last year, a teenager was caught and executed for watching Korean dramas and distributing them to his friends. In December 2020, North Korea enacted the ‘Responsive Ideology and Culture Condemnation Act’, which bans the viewing and distribution of ‘Korean Wave’ such as Korean dramas and music.
On the 15th of last month, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the European Union (EU) resolution condemning human rights violations by North Korea without a vote. The North Korean human rights resolution, which has been adopted for 19 consecutive years since 2005, will be presented to the plenary of the United Nations General Assembly this month.
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