NORTH KOREA: THREE MEN TIED UP AND EXECUTED IN FRONT OF VILLAGERS

March 17, 2025:

Three North Koreans have been tied to stakes and riddled with bullets in a public execution in front of villagers after they tried to flee the country, Mirror reported on March 14, 2025.
The three men were each blasted with ninety bullets before their bodies were set ablaze as locals, including children, watched on in the village of Songjong-ri. The trio faced a gruesome execution after they attempted to flee to the South.
They have been identified as two brothers with the surname Kim and their friend Ri, all in their 30s. The group had spent months planning their escape, pooling their savings together on January 6 to buy a small boat before setting sail in dense fog, desperate to reach the 'democratic' safety of South Korea.
But when the group mistakenly believed a passing ship to be a South Korean fishing boat and cried out for help, they were intercepted by a North Korean patrol boat and swiftly arrested. Eyewitnesses spoke of the chilling process, saying the men were dragged out, blindfolded and gagged, then bound so tightly they needed six restraints each just so their weakened bodies would stay held in place.
"Usually, those who are executed are tied to the stake in three places: the neck, the torso, and the legs," a resident from the northwestern province of North Pyongan who saw the execution on a trip to South Hwanghae, told Radio Free Asia. "But this time, they were so weakened by severe torture that they had to be bound in six sections because they could not support their own bodies."
"Traitors to the nation must be punished!" officials bellowed in a blood-curdling cry as the men were executed. A team of 10 executioners fired nine shots at each man - three to the head, three to the chest and three to the legs - meaning each victim was shot 90 times. Authorities then burned their remains in front of residents.
"There is no place to bury the bodies of defectors in this land!" the witness recalled the officials saying. They described how even the youngest onlookers witnessed the entire execution and were shocked, as some collapsed from the sheer terror.
Another source said the public executions are an attempt to instill fear in the residents about what will happen if they try to escape.
The executions are a stark reminder of increasingly severe penalties for anyone who attempts to flee the reclusive country. Would-be escapees were once sent to reeducation camps for up to 15 years, but nowadays defection carries the death penalty - a gruesome public execution designed to instil fear into any who may have ideas of following in defectors' footsteps.
More than 34,000 North Koreans have taken the huge risk to seek refuge in South Korea since the end of the Korean War - risking not only their lives if they are caught, but by using treacherous routes through China and Southeast Asia.