SEOUL — A North Korean who escaped to South Korea via China seven years ago described in graphic detail how North Korea carries out executions after viewing a videotape of the execution of three North Koreans. The videotape was screened in the basement of the National Assembly library here.
|
The footage shows a man tied to a pole and then pitching forward as shots from the firing squad sever the bindings.
|
|
"No defense attorney is present when there is an open trial," Park went on. "Before they are dragged out to the post to be shot, they are beaten unconscious in a tent next to the post so they cannot know what is going on lest they say something that is not helpful" — that is, blurt out insults and protests against the government.
Prisoners' mouths are then stuffed with rocks, to make sure they can utter no final words of blasphemy against the regime.
Park Sang-Hak, secretary-general of the Democracy Network Against the NK Gulag, said the videotape was distributed by an organization called the Youth League for Freedom in North Korea. The group first approached KBS, the Korean Broadcasting System.
"The people who brought this tape from China were speechless," said Park. "They thought, if KBS doesn't like this, what can we do? There have been public executions, but they all asked for material evidence."
After KBS rejected the videotape, it was aired by NTV, Nippon Television, in Japan on March 16 and March 17. The tape lasts 105 minutes, including repetition to isolate the scenes of the killing in smudgy enlarged shots, background explanation and schematic diagrams of the killing grounds.
Park, who said he had watched numerous public executions for 24 years in North Korea until he was arrested and finally escaped to South Korea, said the firing squad was from the local police garrison. Each member of the squad, he said, was carefully briefed in advance.
"First they talk about where to shoot, the right eye, the left eye," said Park, "but one has to shoot at the rope" binding the prisoner to the post so he will pitch forward to the ground. Generally a firing squad is made up of three men who fire three times - first at the head, then at the chest, and then around the waist.
