22 June 2023 :

Five inmates at the concentration camp in the Susong District (otherwise known as Camp No. 25 in Chongjin) were executed by firing squad in broad daylight in mid-May, according to a source in the country on June 19, 2023, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. 
According to the source, inmates in one section of the prison camp were outside on a work detail in mid-May when two of the workers were found missing during roll call. 
Prison camp officials soon found the missing workers, who had collapsed in a shaded area. But the jailers were so annoyed by the incident that they punished the two by making them stand in the blazing sunlight while holding a bucket of water on their necks. Then one of the other inmates was put watch over them.
When one of the inmates grew faint and nearly dropped the bucket, the inmate who was watching stepped forward to help. Seeing that, the jailers decided to make an example of the inmate on the grounds that helping someone being disciplined out of pity is grounds for receiving the same discipline.
Those two inmates were then made to balance a bucket of water on a wooden plank resting on their shoulders. Their fates were tied together — if either of them moved, it would send the bucket tumbling to the ground, with more punishment in store.
While the three inmates were being thus disciplined, the inmate who was balancing the bucket of water on their neck passed out and fell to the ground. Leaving that inmate where they had fallen, the jailers called over the inmate responsible for monitoring the others and the inmate in charge of the roll call and gave them the same punishment.
By subjecting the monitor to collective punishment, the jailers apparently meant to encourage the other monitors to be more diligent about observing and controlling the inmates.
Now there were four inmates being punished in pairs of two.
After a while, all four dropped to the ground at the same time, as if on cue. The jailers demanded they stand up, but one of the inmates said, “I’d rather you just killed me!” The refrain was taken up by the other three inmates.
Soldiers who were monitoring the situation from a guard post noticed the disturbance and immediately arrived at the scene carrying machine guns.
Since inmates at a political prison camp are forbidden from speaking without permission of the jailers, these inmates’ behavior was treated as serious insubordination. An execution order was issued, and the four inmates who had been punished and the one who had fainted were immediately shot in front of the other inmates at the worksite.
“At the end of May, the central headquarters of the Ministry of State Security was notified that a collective disturbance had occurred and been dealt with according to regulations. At the beginning of June, the ministry sent cadres to the camp to confirm what had happened. The cadres wrote in their final report that several inmates who had tried to mob a jailer were executed on the spot according to internal guidelines,” the source said.
In North Korea, some political prison camps are run by the Ministry of State Security, while others are run by the Ministry of Social Security. The camp in the Susong District of Chongjin is among those run by the Ministry of State Security.
“This incident wasn’t reported to the Central Committee. The jailer who was responsible for the incident was transferred to another section of the same prison camp, but that transfer wasn’t intended as a reprimand,” the source said.

18 January 2023 :

Former North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho appears to have been executed last year, a Japanese newspaper reported on 4 January 2023.
Ri seems to have been executed around between the summer and fall of last year, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, citing unnamed multiple sources.
Four or five officials from North Korea's foreign ministry appear to have been executed successively around the time of Ri's death, according to the report.
It added that some unspecific issues related to the North Korean Embassy in Britain might have been the reasons behind their executions, saying that all of them, including Ri, worked in the diplomatic mission.
South Korea's unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said it is aware of the news report and checking relevant information.
Ri, who was appointed as the North's top diplomat in 2016, played a key role in negotiations with the U.S. for the 2018 and 2019 summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Hanoi summit in early 2019 ended with no deal. Ri is known to have left office in 2020.

30 December 2023 :

Hundreds of residents were forced to gather at an airfield in frigid weather to watch authorities execute a 23-year-old man by firing squad on December 19, 2023, residents in North Korea told Radio Free Asia.
His alleged crime was murdering a woman while trying to steal about US$6 worth of beans from her, authorities told them.
Another 12 people were given lengthy prison sentences in excess of 10 years for various crimes including robbery, fraud, deception, escaping North Korea and drug trafficking, the residents said.
Public executions are a regular occurrence in North Korea. The Hyesan airfield was the same location where authorities executed nine people in August for running a beef smuggling ring and another in September for stealing penicillin.  
“On the morning of the 19th, the day of the public execution, an order was issued from the provincial social security bureau to residents of each neighborhood to gather at the Hyesan airfield by 2 in the afternoon,” a resident of the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons. 
“We had to stand for two hours in minus 15-degree [Celsius] [5 degrees Fahrenheit] weather, braving the howling wind in an empty field covered in white snow,” she said. 
Authorities made the criminals stand in front of the crowd, announced their charges, then read the verdict. It wasn’t clear if they had been tried in a court.
Afterwards, those sentenced to prison were taken away, and the person who was sentenced to death was executed right on the spot by a firing squad, she said.
“Authorities said that the young man who was shot to death committed murder while trying to steal from a woman who was carrying 10 kilograms (22 lbs) of beans one night … at the end of last month.” 
The price of 10 kilograms of beans is about 50,000 won ($5.90) according to the latest market prices available. It is enough to feed a family of four for eight to 15 days. 
The man was not caught immediately after killing the woman, but he was arrested in connection with another crime and it was determined during the investigation that he had killed the woman carrying beans, the resident said.
“At the scene [of the public execution], residents criticized our society, in which people kill each other for food,” she said. “There was also criticism among residents that although murder should be punished, the authorities were largely responsible as most crimes are occurring due to lack of food,” the source said.
North Korea suffers from chronic food shortages, which the resident said provides the main motive for most violent crimes these days. 
The crippling hunger that caused the man to steal the beans was something the onlookers could relate to, another resident, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA.
“The residents understand that because he could not bear hunger at a young age, he committed accidental murder while trying to steal a backpack containing 10 kilograms (22 lbs) of beans that a woman was carrying,” she said. 
“Most of the crimes that occur recently are for survival, and if people had enough to live, they would not have occurred in the first place.” 
She said that the authorities had failed to provide conditions that would allow residents to make a decent living.
“They are only responding with draconian measures, such as this execution by firing squad,” she said.

04 October 2023 :

A manager at a North Korean pharmaceutical warehouse was publicly executed last month for stealing 20,000 doses of penicillin, sources inside the country said.
The man, who was in his 40s, was shot to death on Sept. 25 in Hyesan, a northern city in Ryanggang province on the Chinese border, said a resident of the province who declined to be identified for safety reasons. 
It was the same spot where 25,000 people were forced to watch the execution of nine people on Aug. 30 for running a beef smuggling ring. 
But this time, the number of people who witnessed the execution was much smaller, the source told Radio Free Asia.
“Only housewives and relevant officials gathered at the execution site,” the source told RFA Korean. “Factory and farm work did not stop, and the marketplace was not closed.”
North Korean authorities carry out both secret and public executions by firing squad, hanging or other brutal methods as a means of deterrence to keep its estimated 26 million people in line and loyal to the authoritarian socialist state.
The Sept. 25 execution took place as officials were on edge about the rising number of people with coronavirus-like symptoms and respiratory illnesses, a second source from Ryanggang province said.
“In the public execution, it seemed as if the rapid increase in colds and respiratory symptoms was caused by a shortage of penicillin,” he said.
And while those who witnessed the execution believe there is a medicine shortage, many believe that shooting someone to death was too excessive a punishment, said the second source. 
“In August, people were shot to death for distributing beef, and this month, a manager is shot to death for stealing penicillin,” he said. 
“In this country, human life is worth no more than that of a fly.”
Residents also raised doubts that one person could commit such a crime on his own, the first source said.
“Security is not so lax so that only one person could steal them,” he said. “It is difficult for one manager to steal more than 20,000 doses of penicillin as stated by the court.”
The manager who died oversaw medicines at the No. 4 Warehouse where supplies belonging to the Civil Defense Department under the Provincial People’s Committee are stored for use during wartime, the first source said.
The man had “secretly sold a large amount of wartime reserve medicine” but it wasn’t clear who he had sold it to, the source said.
The No. 4 Warehouse sends medicines that have almost expired to local hospitals and receives new orders to replace them, he added.
“In this process, the entire shortage of penicillin was blamed on one person, and he was shot,” the source said.
A day after the execution, the government-controlled Korean Central News Agency issued a report on the further strengthening of quarantine measures in response to seasonal changes in the North Korean capital Pyongyang. 
City officials are closely monitoring the quarantine situation, quickly establishing preventive measures related to respiratory diseases, including colds, and ensuring that the rapid mobile quarantine team and rapid diagnosis and treatment team are always on high alert, the article said.

09 September 2023 :

A crowd of 25,000 people were forced to gather at the airport in Hyesan, North Korea, and made to watch the shooting of nine people.
The nine people operated an illegal beef distribution ring that bought and sold about 2,100 government-owned cows, slaughtered them, and distributed the meat to markets and businesses, including a restaurant in the capital Pyongyang, residents told Radio Free Asia.
“There were enough people witnessing the shooting scene to fill the whole mountain range,” a resident of Hyesan’s surrounding Ryanggang province told RFA Korean Aug. 30 on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Prior to the execution, army representatives conducted an hour-long special military tribunal and disclosed details about each person’s crime, he said.
“After [that], the seven men and two women who were tied to wooden stakes were executed by military marksmen,” he said.
“They were shot to death for killing and selling more than 2,100 state-owned cows from 2017 to February this year.” 
The ring included the head of the Ryanggang province veterinary quarantine station, a salesperson at the provincial commercial management office, a farm official, a restaurant manager in Pyongyang, and a young college student who, while serving in the military, had manned a security checkpoint on the road into Pyongyang.
The crowd was surrounded by police, soldiers, and other security personnel and made to stay for the duration of the event, the resident said. 
The execution caused another resident to have nightmares, she told RFA the next day.
“I kept thinking of the horrific scene of yesterday’s shooting, so I couldn’t sleep all night and trembled with fear,” she said.
Public executions are believed to have seen a resurgence in North Korea under the rule of Kim Jong Un, after a brief respite in the 2000s when the country was trying to soften its international image in the final years of his father Kim Jong Il’s rule.
Though there are no official statistics on public executions from the North Korean government, a 2021 report by the Seoul-based Transnational Justice Working Group interviewed more than 600 North Koreans who escaped to the South and determined that at least 27 public executions occurred between 2011, the year the younger Kim took power, and 2018. 
RFA reported several more public executions since the period covered in the report.
Whenever there is a public execution, the government usually requires every able-bodied person in the surrounding area to attend. 
Last Wednesday (Aug. 30) was no different, as factories, farms, and marketplaces in Hyesan were closed down, and “everyone between the ages of 17 and 60 who can walk,” were ordered to participate, the resident said.
During the tribunal before the execution, officials told the crowd that the ring was discovered in February when the soldiers who manned the security checkpoint into Pyongyang were discharged and new soldiers replaced them, the second resident said.
The smugglers had attempted to enter Pyongyang as usual and were caught by the new soldiers. 
“In the judgment [against the ring], it was written that ‘cows are necessary for plowing fields and farming, but the culprits, by slaughtering them, hindered the country’s grain production and disrupted society,’” she said.
In a country plagued by chronic food shortages, authorities consider this to be a very serious crime, the second resident said. 
“Prior to the public execution, the Special Military Tribunal of the Korean People’s Army said, ‘these criminals are treacherous, so there is no place to bury them in our country, whether in the sky or in the ground, and even extermination of three generations is not enough.’”

03 July 2023 :

Earlier this month, two female farm workers in Chongdam County, South Hwanghae Province, were publicly executed for breaking the channel lock on their television and secretly watching South Korean programs, Daily NK has learned. 
After their arrest by the Ministry of State Security in December, the two underwent preliminary examinations through June before being publicly executed in front of residents of Chongdam County, according to a Daily NK source in the province on June 26, 2023, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. 
According to the source, members of the Ministry of State Security exposed the wrongdoing of the women during a struggle session held before their execution. 
“The two quickly became close as they shared their ideology, corrupted as they discussed their curiosity about South Korea and the outside world,” officials at the struggle session alleged, according to the source. 
According to the source, someone from the two women’s neighborhood watch unit — envious of how the two neighbors were always hanging out with one another — found it suspicious that there were only children at one of the women’s homes. She barged in, discovered the television channel lock had been broken and learned from the children that the two women watched foreign videos while they were all asleep. The woman then reported the matter to the Ministry of State Security.
The Ministry of State Security proceeded to raid the homes of the two women, discovered that the television channel lock had indeed been broken, and confirmed details of their alleged crimes from the children. Determining that the woman’s report had not been false, the ministry immediately arrested the two women.
“Most of the people assembled [at the execution site] were shocked when the Ministry of State Security officials stated prior to the public execution that the killings ‘are aimed at clearly informing the public that unlocking the frequency lock to listen to the radio or watch television is an anti-state crime,’” the source said.
Ministry of State Security officials told those assembled that the crime would have earned the violator a sentence of short-term labor or, in serious cases, three to five years of reform-through-labor in the past. Officials emphasized, however, that due to ideologically corrupt behavior actively emerging in “today’s complex times,” the executions were to be carried out based on central government orders to “get everyone’s heads on straight.”
“After the executions, officials declared from the rostrum that there will be continuous executions,” the source said. “The call for additional executions frightened people, with some saying that almost everyone watches [foreign media content], and that the two executed women had merely been caught doing so.”

02 April 2023 :

North Korea executes people for sharing South Korean media, religious activities and drugs as the country stifles its citizens’ human rights and freedom, according to a report published on 30 March 2023 by South Korea.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, based the 450-page report on testimony collected from 2017 to 2022 from more than 500 North Koreans who fled their homeland.
“North Korean citizens’ right to life appears to be greatly threatened,” the ministry said in the report.
“Executions are widely carried out for acts that do not justify the death penalty, including drug crimes, distribution of South Korean videos, and religious and superstitious activities.”
North Korea has been accused of committing horrific human rights violations, including the state execution of a six-month pregnant woman who was filmed pointing at the portrait of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the pariah state, while dancing in her home. In the extensive South Korean report, publicised for the first time, Kim Jong-un was criticised for overseeing the execution of homosexuals, religious persons and those who tried to flee the country, as well as attempting to conduct hysterectomies on women carrying the dwarfism gene and committing mass eugenics.
Horrifying testimony detailed the violent lengths to which the North Korean regime would go to push and protect its agenda.
One heavily pregnant woman was killed after a widely-circulated video showed her pointing at a portrait of the late Kim Il-sung while dancing in her home.
Testimony revealed that six teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were executed by shooting.
They were said to have been charged over watching video footage originating from South Korea and smoking opium at a stadium in the city of Wonsan, Kangwon Province.
Additionally, human experiments were conducted where its subjects were reported to have secretly been fed sleeping pills and forcibly taken to a facility called Hospital 83.
Officials at the Ministry of Social Security allegedly blackmailed families into letting their relatives become human test subjects under the threat of sending them to prison camps.
The regime also forced nurses to write up “a list of dwarfs” and conducted hysterectomies on a woman with dwarfism in an exercise of eugenics. Disabled people, particularly those with dwarfism, were deprived of their human rights and had medical procedures conducted on them against their will.
Rampant state-led rights abuses were said to have taken place in communities, prison camps and elsewhere, including public executions, torture and arbitrary arrests.
Women in detention were especially subjected to inhumane conditions including torture, forced labour, sexual violence and starvation.
Detention facilities saw deaths and torture occurring regularly and some people were executed after being caught trying to cross the border, the South Korean ministry said.
A total of 11 political prison camps were identified by the Unification Ministry, with five currently in operation.
“North Korean citizens' right to life appears to be greatly threatened,” the ministry said in its report.
“Executions are widely carried out for acts that do not justify the death penalty, including drug crimes, distribution of South Korean videos, and religious and superstitious activities.”
The report came as South Korea seeks to highlight its neighbour's failure to improve living conditions while racing to boost its nuclear and missile arsenals.
Seoul began compiling yearly reports on Pyongyang's alleged human rights abuses in 2018 following the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Acts in 2016.
While the Unification Ministry is required by law to make an annual assessment of the North's human rights situation, this year marks the first time the report has been made public.
The country's current president, Yoon Suk Yeol, expressed his administration's desire to “fully expose” their northern neighbour’s “gruesome human rights violations”.
President Yoon said the report's publication should better inform the international community of what is going on in the North. He added that the rogue state deserves “not a single penny” of economic aid while it pursues its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has rejected criticism of its rights conditions as part of a plot to overthrow its rulers.