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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNorth Korea executes 80 people 'for watching foreign films'
Eighty people have been executed by firing squad in North Korea for watching foreign films, according to a newspaper report.
South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the co-ordinated public executions took place in seven separate cities earlier this month. In one case, the local authorities rounded up 10,000 people, including children, and forced them to watch, it reported.
Those put to death were found guilty by the state of minor misdemeanours, including watching videos of South Korean television programs or possessing a Bible.
SNIP
Relatives and friends of the victims were reportedly sent to prison camps, a tactic that North Korea frequently uses to dissuade anyone from breaking the law.
''Reports on public executions across the country would be certain to have a chilling effect on the rest of the people,'' Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst with the International Crisis Group in Seoul, said.
Continued at Link:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korea-executes-80-people-for-watching-foreign-films-20131112-2xee3.html
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Big grains of salt with this, large accusations require large evidence.
Mika
(17,751 posts)So they say.
True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)Who the fuck is this flood of posters defending brutal dictators?
In another thread I had to wipe the shit off my shoe of some asshole saying Castro's Cuba is a free democracy.
Mika
(17,751 posts)True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)You leap into a kneejerk defence of arguably the most brutal dictatorship in the world without a single shred of evidence - not even attempting to rebut, just to deflect and misdirect - and then you have the gall to accuse someone who calls you on it for kneejerking?
For shame.
Yes, occasionally false accusations get made and believed. But, equally, a lot of true ones get made and disregarded, or never come to light.
okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)communist countries. I too find it completely incomprehensible.
EX500rider
(10,518 posts)In France it was revealed that a North Korean college student in Paris, with ties to enemies of Kim Jong Un, escaped an attempt to kidnap him and put him on a plane to North Korea. The incident took place at a Paris airport in early November and the victim is now in hiding. The victim is one of ten North Korean students who came to France in 2012 under an exchange program. France is one of the few European countries to do this sort of thing with North Korea. But the victim is the son of an aide to the disgraced uncle of Kim Jong Un. Late last year all the blood relatives of Jang Sung Taek, the uncle of supreme leader Kim Jong Un, were killed. Jang was denounced in early December and executed on December 12th. After Jang was executed the secret police rounded up Jangs siblings along with their children and grandchildren and killed them all. Some who resisted orders to leave their homes and accompany the secret police were shot on the spot, in front of witnesses. Those who had married into the family were spared and sent to live with their families. Such mass murder is an ancient custom and was once found all over the world. It persisted longest in East Asia, where has been less frequently used in the last century or so. The purpose was to prevent family members later seeking revenge for the execution of their kinsman. In addition to the family members, the secret police also went after key aides of Jang and sent them to labor camps. Apparently the secret police, or Kim Jong Un himself, decided that the son of an aide, studying in Paris, was a potential threat who must be returned to North Korea for punishment. It is not unusual for dictators to go after real (or imagined) individuals abroad who are deemed to pose a threat. The Soviets did this during the Cold War and Iran has carried out similar operations. North Korea has long sought to assassinate defectors in South Korea and elsewhere but has never been as active in this area as under Kim Jong Un
http://strategypage.com/qnd/korea/articles/20141126.aspx
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,212 posts)okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)RAND report a well as intel from So. Korea.
It was also published in the London Telegraph.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)unknown. Some believe it could be Kim Jong Un sending a chilling message to his citizens about who is in control. That is a typical N Korea move, ditto sending their families to camps.
hunter
(38,264 posts)But I'd probably be among the invisible people, merely surviving, day by day, waiting for a safer opportunity.
Half my ancestors overtly fled to the Americas anticipating some very bad shit, sometimes just ahead of wars, famine, plagues, and executioners. The others quietly endured until they could slip away in times of confusion.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)the North Koreans are brutal, barbarous motherfuckers, that much is certain.
jmowreader
(50,447 posts)It's dated November 2013.
Either they quit executing so many people since then, or (more likely) they got better at controlling the flow of information out of the Hermit Kingdom.