The Sun
KIM Jong-un’s brutal North Korean regime burns bodies with flamethrowers and children are killed by firing squad, a report says.
A South Korean human rights organisation has documented 23 public executions in the rogue state and says the largest number were for “crimes” such as watching foreign films – not for rape or murder.
The report features testimony from North Korean defectors who were forced to watched the executions alongside the family members of the condemned.
All 23 of the public killings documented by the Transitional Justice Working Group have taken placed since Kim, 37, came to power in December 2011.
The actual number of executions carried out in the past 10 years is believed to be much higher.
Two of the documented executions were hangings and 21 were by firing squad.
Speaking of a shooting death in 2012, one witness said: “The condemned person was dragged out of a car like a dog before the public execution.
“The person who was about to be executed was already in a near-death condition and his eardrums seemed to be damaged, preventing him from hearing or saying anything.”
Before another death by firing squad in North Hwanghae province in 2014, the condemned prisoner was tied to a post and had pebbles stuffed in his mouth.
Some of the bodies following the executions are roasted by flamethrowers in front of their families.
A witness said: “In Pyongyang in 2012 or 2013 the executed body was burnt with a flamethrower in front of a crowd following execution.
“The family of the accused was forced to attend the execution and sit in the front row to observe the scene.
“The father fainted after watching his son burn in front of his eyes.”
‘CHILDREN SHOT’
In 2012, a child was executed with AK-47 rifles.
Describing the horrific killing, a defector said: “Blood was splattered and flesh was tattered.
“The authorities folded the body of the executed in half by stepping on it, and put it in a sack.
“I heard that they threw the sack away.”
Workers and students were forced to attend executions and look into prisoners’ eyes before they were killed.
Speaking of a killing in North Hamgyong in 2012, the witness said: “Even when there was fluid leaking from the condemned person’s brain, people were made to stand in line and look at the executed person in the face as a warning message.”
People attending are checked with metal detectors and phones are banned to prevent the executions being filmed – which is reportedly evidence the regime is self-conscious about details of the savage slayings spreading outside the country.
Seven of the executions were for watching or distributing South Korea films. Another five were for drug offences, prostitution and human trafficking.
The rest were for murder, attempted murder or sexual assault.
According to The Times, it’s difficult to verify the report’s claims – however they are consistent with other testimony from defectors and experts over the years.
In 2020, the hermit kingdom’s state media warned of the “ideological and cultural poisoning” caused by foreign films, music and language.
Leaked footage emerged last year showing North Koreans being savagely beaten in detention centres.
The rogue state houses prisoners in horrific labour camps where they are treated worse than animals and worked to death, reports say.
SICK REGIME
In 2017, a North Korean defector revealed she saw 11 musicians “blown to bits” by anti-aircraft guns in a terrifying execution ordered by Kim Jong-un.
Hee Yeon Lim, 26, the daughter of a high-ranking soldier from Pyongyang, fled to South Korea and has told of the horrors she witnessed while part of the secretive regime’s inner circle.
Hee Yeon said she and her classmates were taken to a stadium at the city’s Military Academy where the hooded victims were tied to the end of anti-aircraft guns in front of 10,000 spectators.
The escapee then recalled how the guns were fired one by one, saying: “The musicians just disappeared each time the guns were fired into them.
“Their bodies were blown to bits, totally destroyed, blood and bits flying everywhere.”
‘BLOWN TO BITS’
A satellite emerged in 2014 showing a former execution site where people where mercilessly blasted with an anti-aircraft weapon.
Kim seized control of North Korea following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in 2011 when he was 27-years-old.
Today, North Koreans are being forced to observe an 11-day period of mourning for the tenth anniversary of Jong-il’s death.
A resident told Radio Free Asia: “During the mourning period, we must not drink alcohol, laugh or engage in leisure activities.”
In 2013, Kim executed his own uncle Jang Song-thaek by firing squad after he was accused of being a traitor.
This story first appeared in The Sun
