N.Korea Sentences Defectors to Death in Absentia

North Korea's highest court has handed down death sentences in absentia for defectors who are campaigning in South Korea for the improvement of human rights in the North, the Liberty Korea Post reported Tuesday.

According to the defectors' online news outlet, the chief of one defector group that has sent propaganda to the North has recently heard from his mother in the North that the court sentenced him to death.

His mother is living home alone and all his brothers have been sent to a political prison camp. Agents from the State Security Department read her the court decision, which caused her to faint, the website said.

He told the website the agents also threatened that the sentences will be carried out by assassins.

The website also said that in late 2016, the North's highest court handed down death sentences for 24 defectors.