The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
B. Public Executions
79 Sentence and Decision Implementation Law stipulates that death sentences shall be carried out by firing squad. Thus, public execu- tions are usually carried out by firing squad, with normally nine shots fired.
Regarding the procedures of public execution, the “defectors”
have testified as follows: The Republic’s flag is draped in the back- ground, and people from the Central Prosecutors’ Office come down to the site. The director of Provincial Safety, the director of the Provincial Security Agency, a court official, and others also participate.
The trial is conducted openly. A court official will read out criminal charges and then hand down the sentence. A defector testified that a court official would read out criminal charges and then pronounce that he was handing down the death sentence in accordance with such and such articles of the Penal Code of DPRK.3
During the review session for the 2nd regular report submitted by North Korea to the UNHRC, North Korea officially admitted to at least one case of public execution based on evidence presented.
North Korea said it had publicly executed a violent criminal, Ju Soo-man, in Hamheung in October, 1992, for having brutally murdered his grandparents, Ju Jong-eun (84) and Choi Yon-ok (72). Even after admitting this case of public execution, North Korea maintained the position that the authorities had done it to comply with the demands of the masses in the area. Based on this logic, the North Korean delegation openly admitted to the practice of public execution during the Universal Periodic Review Session of the UNHRC on Dec. 7th, 2009. During the session, a North Korean delegate said, “Capital punishments in principle are carried out behind the scenes. In exceptional cases, particularly in the case
3_Interview with defector XXX in Seoul on January 9, 2008.
of an extremely heinous crime, public executions are carried out occasionally in compliance with the demands of victims’ families who demand confirmation.” North Korea has officially admitted to the practice of public execution at an open international forum discussing human rights issues.
•Public Execution Procedures and North Korean Criminal Law
As seen in <Table II-1> and <Table II-2>, crimes punishable by the death penalty are listed in the Penal Code and Addendum to the Penal Code (General Crimes). The procedure for capital punishment is provided for in the Criminal Procedure Act and the Law on Sentences and Implementations of Decisions. The death penalty in particular is carried out after the judgment is finalized, and executions require the approval of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly (Article 419, Criminal Procedure Act). From a rule of law standpoint, it is important to determine whether North Korea carries out public executions only for crimes provided for by its Penal Code and in accordance with legal procedures.4 The documents shown below indicate that public executions are ordered for crimes stipulated in the Penal Code and the sentences are carried out in accordance with certain procedures. In one example, the Pyongyang Court of Justice sentenced Lee Seong-cheol to death for the willful destruction of state property in accordance with Article 4 of the Addendum to the Penal Code (General Crimes). On September 2010, the Supreme Court requested approval for the public execution of defendant Lee Seong-cheol as sentenced and confirmed by the Pyongyang Court of Justice (Figure II-2). Also, the North Pyeongan
4_Lee Gyu-chang and Jeong Gwang-jin, Research on Criminal Trial System; Characteristics and Reality(Seoul: Korea Institute for National Unification, 2011), pp. 81-88.
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81 Province Court of Justice sentenced Kim Chun-nam to death applying Article 4 of the Addendum to the Penal Code (General Crimes).
The Supreme Court requested approval for the public execution of defendant Kim Chun-nam as sentenced and confirmed by the North Pyeongan Province Court of Justice (Figure II-3).
<Figure II–2> The Supreme Court’s Request for the Approval of Execution (1)
□Lee Seong-cheol (age 40, the crime of willful destruction of state property)
●On the Criminal Acts of Defendant Lee Seong-cheol Case Name: The crime of willful destruction of state property
(Article 4 of the Addendum to the Penal Code) Defendant: Lee Seong-cheol, male
Residence: The Hyeongje-san District of Pyongyang Work Position: Hyeongje-san District laborer Personal Background: Farm worker Party Affiliation: Not affiliated
●Substance of Crime
Defendant Lee Seong-cheol, in conspiracy with joint defendant Kim Jeong-gil (male, age 44, Dae-dong-gun farm worker) and two others, committed eight extremely severe acts of destruction of state property from 2006 to 2010 in stealing eight laboring cows (valued at 401,410 NKW) from Hyeongje-san and surrounding districts and slaughtering them in secret. In addition, they stole and illegally sold six laboring cows and one candidate cow (341,900 NKW), and also committed the crime of personal commercial activity.
※Joint defendant Kim Jeong-gil, who was urged by defendant Lee Seong- cheol and conspired in the secret slaughter of the eight laboring cows for the purpose of obtaining their meat and byproducts, was sentenced to a lifetime term of correctional prison labor under Article 97 (3) of the Penal Code (the crime of willful destruction of state property);
※Joint defendant Kwon Yeong-min, who stole three laboring cows and deliv- ered them to the defendant, was sentenced to nine years of correctional prison labor under Article 89 (3) of the Penal Code (the crime of theft of state property); Kim Yeong-sik, who stole two laboring cows and two candidate cows and delivered them to the defendant was sentenced to six years of correctional prison labor under Article 89 (2) of the Criminal Act.
●Opinion of the Supreme Court
We request approval for the public execution of defendant Lee Seong-cheol, who was sentenced to death by the Pyongyang Court of Justice and whose sentence was affirmed as final.
The above documents are the first evidence showing that North Korea adheres to the provisions of its criminal law in carry- ing out public executions, and their significance is not to be
<Figure II–3> The Supreme Court’s Request for the Approval of Execution (2)
□Kim Chun-nam(age 36, the crime of willful destruction of state property)
●On the Criminal Acts of Defendant Kim Chun-nam Case Name: The crime of willful destruction of state property
(Article 4 of the Criminal Act Supplementary Provisions) Defendant: Kim Chun-nam, male
Residence: Yeomju-gun, North Pyeongan Province Work Position: Yeom-ju-gun laborer
Personal Background: Soldier Party Affiliation: Labor Party
●Substance of Crime
Defendant Kim Chun-nam, alone and in conspiracy with others, committed twelve acts of cutting and destroying 1,100m of high voltage 3,300V power lines (4mm and 5mm copper wire, valued at 73,300 NKW) around Dongrim-gun in the period from 2008 to 2010. He then sold the stolen copper wire weighing 191.5kg for 1,004,100 NKW, taking the proceeds for his personal use.
※Joint defendant Choi Yeong-suk, who in conspiracy with the defendant committed four acts of stealing or secretly selling 80kg of power lines (5mm copper wire, 35,300 NKW), was sentenced to three years of correctional prison labor under Article 89 (2) of the Penal Code (the crime of theft of state property).
※Joint defendant Lee Gi-ung, who knew the defendant was cutting power lines and bringing them to him, nevertheless bought and secretly sold those power lines on three occasions, totalling 71kg of stolen power lines (valued at 11,500 NKW). The defendant was sentenced to two years of correctional prison labor under Article 115 (1) of the Penal Code (the crime of smuggling and trafficking colored metals).
※Joint Defendant Han Seong-yun bought and secretly sold copper wire brought by the defendant four times totalling 73.5kg of wire (valued at 11,300 NKW). Since his cousin, Han Seong-gu (male, age 24, member of the North Korean People’s Army), is in a special forces unit, a settlement offer was presented, but no settlement was reached. Thus the defendant Han is now being handled as a separate case.
●Opinion of the Supreme Court
We request approval for the public execution of defendant Kim Chun-nam, who was sentenced to death by the North Pyeongan Province Court of Justice and whose sentence is affirmed as final.
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83 underestimated. However, the question remains whether all public executions are carried out according to the procedures laid out in the above documents. From the above documents alone, it is unclear whether the Supreme Court requested approval after the death sentence was confirmed in the appeal, or whether the verdict was finalized without an appeal and the trial courts (the Pyongyang Court of Justice and the North Pyeongan Province Court of Justice in these two cases) requested approval for the executions via the Supreme Court. Furthermore, the institution to which the Supreme Court requested approval was not specified, leaving uncertainty as to whether this approval came from the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, as provided in the North Korean Criminal Procedure Act, or from some other body.
As discussed above, and confirmed in the testimonies by North Korean defectors described below, public and private executions are carried out within long-term corrective labor camps, execution by summary trial are routine in the political prison camps, and arbitrary secret executions are carried out by State Security agents.
In their testimonies, defectors gave the following details of public executions.
•Public Execution for Anti-regime Activities
<Resistance Activities against the Regime>
North Korea will execute those charged with anti-regime activity or treason against the Fatherland. Executions are also sometimes carried out for brokering illegal river crossings, the sale of property from revolutionary historic sites, and the receipt of money from the South Korean National Intelligence Service. The
death penalty has also reportedly been handed out for some acts of religious proselytizing.
– Defector XXX testified that in April 2007 he witnessed XXX of Hweryung City, North Hamgyeong Province execut- ed at the marketplace in Hweryung City on charges of helping his family illegally cross the river.5
– Defector XXX testified that in 2007 a man and a woman living in Yonsa County had sold off some legally protected trees to China through an intermediary under the tacit consent of military, party, and security agency officials.
North Korea had been protecting those trees by law as
“relics of revolutionary history.” When this incident was uncovered during an inspection, the two perpetrators were publicly executed in Soonam Marketplace.6
– Defector XXX testified that in July 2007, XXX, the owner (president) of the Namkang Company, a 41-year-old man, was publicly executed at Shinpoong Stadium in Wonsan City on charges of having received money from South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency. He was arrested dur- ing the Central Party inspections.7
– Defector XXX testified that he heard a rumor on October 2009 that a woman who used to live in Junghwa-gun, Pyongyang, was executed in early 2009 for the possession of a Bible.8
5_NKHR2011000013 2010-06-08.
6_NKHR2008000007 2008-07-30; NKHR2008000013 2008-08-19; NKHR2008000027 2008-12-02; It is believed that this incident at the time stirred up considerable social anxiety. There was similar testimony in 2009. NKHR2009000011 2009-03-03.
7_NKHR2009000070 2009-11-18.
8_NKHR2011000209 2011-09-20.
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85
<Murders of People’s Safety and State Security Agents>
There are some testimonies indicating that public executions have been carried out in connection with murders of agents of the Ministry of People’s Safety and National Security Agency. It appears that some North Korean residents, discontented with the tighter social control measures enacted in the process of building the political succession system, have committed murders of People’s Safety agents and State Security agents, and the North Korean government is responding harshly to these perceived acts of resistance to the regime.
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor that two brothers convicted of killing a People’s Safety agent in July 2010 during a crackdown on bingdu(a type of drug trafficked in North Korea) and viewing South Korean compact discs were executed at Hoeryeong Stadium.9 Another defector also heard a rumor that two brothers who lived in Mangyang- dong, Hoeryeong, were publicly executed at the Hoeryeong Stadium for murdering a People’s Safety agent in the summer of 2010.10
– Defector XXX reported to witnessing two brothers, XXX and XXX, being shot in August 2010 in Secheon area of Hoeryeong, North Hamgyeong Province for killing a State Security agent.11Another defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor in January 2011 in Gangan-dong, Hoeryeong, North Hamgyeong Province, that two men were caught using cell phones by a People’s Safety agent. The men killed the agent, but they were later both shot for the
9_NKHR2011000099 2011-04-26.
10_NKHR2011000187 2011-08-16.
11_NKHR2011000037 2011-01-11.
crime.12 Defector XXX also heard in March 2011 in Hoeryeong that there was a public execution in Hweryeong for the murder of a State Security agent.13
<Dissemination of Information about the Outside World>
North Korea has been cracking down on people involved in the dissemination of information about the outside world, including the distribution of South Korean leaflets and the selling of South Korean videos, and the usage of cellular phones. One can be brought up on criminal charges, and executed, for being involved in such activities.
In particular, North Korea regards the use of cellular phones as an anti-state activity. It has prohibited the use of cell phones along the border regions. Anyone caught using a cell phone can receive either a $100 fine or expulsion, along with confiscation of the cell phone. In most cases, people try to avoid expulsion by paying the fine and having their cell phone confiscated. However, as more and more detailed information about events inside North Korea has trickled out of the country and found its way into South Korean and international reports; and as more and more information about the outside world has crept in and been circulated, authorities in the North have begun to tighten internal controls.
However, not everyone caught using mobile phones is executed. The level of punishment varies according to the contents of the phone conversation, and the heaviest penalties are imposed for those caught talking to a South Korean.
– Defector XXX testified that she was penalized with fines for using a mobile phone and the phone was confiscated;
12_NKHR2011000151 2011-06-28.
13_NKHR2011000162 2011-07-12.
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87 this level of punishment was based on the contents of conversation.14
– Defector XXX testified that he was penalized with disciplinary prison labor for using a mobile phone in Feb. 2010. He was given only a fine because he was classified as having voluntarily15reported the use.
– Defector XXX testified that if anyone is detected using a mobile phone, the minimum penalty is disciplinary prison labor.16
– Defector XXX testified that anyone caught using mobile phones illegally in 2010 would be forcibly banished or punished with an unlimited term of correctional labor.17 – Defector XXX testified that the heaviest penalties were
imposed for those caught contacting persons in South Korea.18
Sometimes individuals are publicly executed for the crime of circulating information about the outside world through leaflets and/or video materials. Recently, as devices such as computers, cell phones, MP3 players, and USBs have been introduced to North Korea, a culture of mutual communication between North Korean residents has started to develop. As new attitudes have spread due to this development, South Korean movies and television dramas have come to be widely enjoyed even by Party officials and members of the middle class who support the North Korean regime. North Korea is increasingly cracking down on information distribution
14_NKHR2010000007 2010-03-16.
15_NKHR2010000007 2010-03-16.
16_NKHR2010000035 2010-11-09.
17_NKHR2010000044 2010-11-02.
18_NKHR2010000044 2010-09-07.
activities so as to forestall changes in perception among the people due to the influx of capitalist culture into North Korea. In particular, it is putting special effort into cutting off news of the pro-democracy movements that began to spread through the Middle East and Northern Africa from January of 2011, the so-called Jasmine Revolution.
– Defector XXX testified to witnessing one woman’s execution in October 2008 at the Sinpung Stadium at Sinpung-dong, Weonsan, Gangwon Province for the crime of selling South Korean compact disks.19
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor in 2009 that XXX was shot at Suseong-cheon in Cheongjin, North Hamgyeong Province for distributing compact disks. The market was not open at the time, and the public execution was announced during a public event.20
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor that a man who lived in Wonju, Gangwon Province, was shot in May 2010 at the market in Cheongjin for selling South Korean compact disks.21
– Defector XXX testified to witnessing a man from Cheongjin being shot in May 2010 at the Sunam Market in Cheongjin for the crime of watching and distributing numerous South Korean compact disks.22
Even among those caught with South Korean videos or propaganda leaflets in their possession, not everyone is subject to public execution. Defector XXX testified that depending on the
19_NKHR2011000158 2011-07-05.
20_NKHR2010000012 2010-09-14.
21_NKHR2011000094 2011-04-12.
22_NKHR2011000176 2011-08-02.
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89 case people may be penalized with fines or sent off to labor-training camps, but not always to correctional centers.23Defector XXX who defected in January 2010 testified that people could avoid physical punishment if they could offer bribes.24But through the Penal Code revision of 2009 North Korea made it possible to punish a wide range of cases by adding penalties for possession of corruptive or depraved materials and decadent behavior in an effort to cut off the inflow of capitalist culture,25 because the authorities feared that South Korean videos would have a detrimental influence on North Koreans. For example, defector XXX said she listened to broadcasts by South Korea’s Christian Broadcasting Station and Hanminjok (One Nation) in 2009, and afterwards he wished he could go to South Korea.26
<Acts Related to the Failed Currency Reform>
When the attempted rapid currency reform in late November 2009 failed, it appears that Park Nam-gi, the former director of Finance and Planning Department of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) who was in charge of the initiative, was executed. It seems that there has been several public executions for revealing the currency reform in advance and improperly disposing of the old currency.
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor at the 9501 Military Camp on the Pyongyang Subway that Park Nam- gi was publically executed in March 2010 at a school in Pyongyang.27 Another defector also heard a rumor that
23_NKHR2010000018 2010-10-05.
24_NKHR2010000020 2010-06-01.
25_Lee Baik-gyu, “Overview of North Korea’s Revised Penal Code, 2009,” op. cit. above.
26_NKHR2011000022 2010-06-24.
27_NKHR2011000070 2011-03-15.
Park Nam-gi was killed by firing squad for leading the currency reform effort, and testified that the execution took place at the Ganggeon Military Academy in the Sunan District of Pyongyang.28
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor that a woman was executed in December 2009 in Gyeongseong-gun, North Hamgyeong Province, for divulging the currency reform in advance.29
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor in July 2010 at the Sunam District of Cheongjin that a man was executed for disposing of some old currency in a river, deeming it to be useless after the currency reform.30
<Other Anti-State Acts>
It appears that there were also public executions for failing to transmit electricity to the capital Pyongyang. It seems that the act of not transmitting electricity was deemed an anti-state act and heavily punished because electricity is considered essential to a strong and prosperous state.
– Defector XXX testified to hearing a rumor that two executives of the Jangjin River Power Plant were executed in March 2010 at the Jangjin River Power Plant for not transmitting electricity to Pyongyang.31
28_NKHR2011000088 2011-04-05.
29_NKHR2011000221 2011-06-09.
30_NKHR2011000217 2011-10-04.
31_NKHR2011000133 2011-06-07.
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