Some prostitutes and other offenders in North
Korea have been publicly executed by the
government, a new media report has alleged.
North Korea carries out public executions on river
banks and at school grounds and marketplaces
for charges such as stealing copper from factory
machines, distributing media from South Korea
and prostitution, a report issued on Wednesday
said.
A report by a Seoul-based non-government
group, Transitional Justice Working Group, said
extra-judicial decisions for public executions are
frequently influenced by “bad” family background
or a government campaign to discourage certain
behaviour.
The TJWG said its report was based on interviews
with 375 North Korean defectors from the isolated
state over a period of two years.
Reuters could not independently verify the
testimony of defectors in the report. The TJWG is
made up of human rights activists and
researchers and is led by Lee Young-hwan, who
has worked as an advocate for human rights in
North Korea.
It receives most of its funding from the U.S.-
based National Endowment for Democracy, which
in turn is funded by the U.S. Congress.
The TJWG report aims to document the locations
of public killings and mass burials, which it says
had not been done previously, to support an
international push to hold to account those who
commit what it describes as crimes against
humanity.
“The maps and the accompanying testimonies
create a picture of the scale of the abuses that
have taken place over decades,” the group said.
TJWG said its project to map the locations of
mass graves and executions has the potential to
contribute to documentation that could back the
push for accountability and future efforts to bring
the North to justice.
It said executions are carried out in prison camps
to incite fear and intimidation among potential
escapees, and public executions are carried out
for seemingly minor crimes, including the theft of
farm produce such as corn and rice.
North Korea rejects charges of human rights
abuses, saying its citizens enjoy protection under
the constitution and accuses the U.S. of being the
world’s worst rights violator.
However, the North has faced an unprecedented
push to hold the regime and its leader, Kim Jong
Un, accountable for a wide range of rights abuses
since a landmark 2014 report by a United Nations
commission.
UN member countries urged the Security Council
in 2014 to consider referring North Korea and its
leader to the International Criminal Court for
crimes against humanity, as alleged in a
Commission of Inquiry report.
The commission detailed abuses including large
prison camps, systematic torture, starvation and
executions comparable to Nazi-era atrocities, and
linked the activities to the North’s leadership.
North Korea has rejected that inquiry’s findings
and the push to bring the North to a tribunal
remains stalled due in part to objections by China
and Russia, which hold veto powers at the UN
Security Council.
