Nearly 1,400 Public Executions in N.Korea Since 2000

Some 1,382 people were publicly executed between 2000 and 2014 in North Korea, the Korea Institute for National Unification says.

The institute bases the tally on the testimony of around 1,400 North Korean defectors but adds the actual number of executions may be even higher.

A number of people were executed for no worse crime than watching DVDs of South Korean dramas or films.

The report flies in the face of North Korean protestations to the UN last January that executions were used only in exceptional cases.