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Japan's n-TV on Wednesday aired footage of a public execution in North Korea. The channel ran the footage obtained from a defector on its afternoon news program "News Plus 1."
The full video is 90 minutes in length and was shot by a North Korean defector who clandestinely re-entered the Stalinist country. The footage is the first visual evidence confirming reports of a recent spate of public executions in the North.
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Two factory workers accused of trying to help a North Korean defect are tied to posts prior to their execution by firing squad. The video was secretly filmed on March 1 and smuggled out of the country./dailynk
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The video captures public executions carried out in the Sino-Korean border town of Hoeryeong, North Hamgyeong Province on March 1-2, from public trial to death by firing squad. Hoeryeong-born defector Kim Kwang-hee, 32, said the areas in the video appeared to be Hoeryeong's Obong-ni and Yuseon-dong districts. Kim said public executions are usually carried out where the suspect lives and had happened in the two areas before.
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North Korean residents brought to venue of public executions in Hoeryong, North Hamgyeong Province. Security personnel in downtown Hoeryong are known to have directed residents to the execution sites. Japan's n-TV said thousands watched.
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The video shows 11 suspects being dragged before a crowd of "thousands" of residents, according to the n-TV report. During the show trial the judge can be heard calling for the sentences to be "carried out immediately" after he condemns the accused to death. The accused are seen being tied to posts before their heads slump with the sound of the gunfire.
Footage shows the bicycles the crowd took to get to the execution venue, as well as residents getting on bicycles to watch the executions and a loudspeaker vehicle broadcasting the judge's sentence.
One North Korean resident who was at the scene of the executions said two people were shot on March 1 and one person on March 2. He said the two executed on March 1 were factory laborers Choi Jae-gon and Park Myeong-gil. Another defector who witnessed the executions said the three were accused of trafficking North Koreans across the border to China and trying to sell U.S. military dog-tags.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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