[imText1]In the mid 90’s, during the mass starvation that cost the lives of several million North Korean citizens, Kim Jong Il legalized on-the-spot executions in order to facilitate the execution of criminals.
This author witnessed the horror of a summary judgment at Haesan Railway Station in Yangkang Province in March of 1996.
At the time, I had come to Haesan to sell copper, and had boarded the Haesan – Pyongyang train in order to return to my home. Due to chronic electricity shortages, the train ran only once every several days and was overloaded with merchants who had been out doing business.
Not knowing when the train would depart, I stood in the passenger car and began to doze off. Suddenly, a woman screamed in distress “Please save me!” Soon the cry became “Mister, please let me go this one time!” as she wildly begged for help from those around her. After a few moments, her cries were accompanied by the sound of someone being struck as a scuffle broke out around her.
About three minutes later, shouting “Move, get out of the way,” two men, accompanying the woman who was asking for help, were each holding the arms of two robbery suspects and escorted them off the train.
The men holding the accused thieves were young men about 180 centimeters tall, wearing cotton pants and cotton winter jackets with ski masks. The surprising thing was that the ski masks were pulled down leaving only their eyes showing, and both carried guns in their hands.
Upon hearing “On your knees!” the two suspects began to beg “Please forgive me,” and “Please save me!” In an instant, hundreds of surprised people gathered around the train.
One of the young men holding a gun asked the woman the details of her case. According to the woman, she had come to Haesan in Yangkang Province to sell goods and at the time was on her way home after purchasing a Chinese brand of medicine worth 10,000 North Korean won (47 U.S. dollars under current exchange rates).
But the two men, who had been watching her from the time she was in the market, used the confusion of the crowded train to get close to her. They had their eyes on her bag.
These two slit her backpack with a razor, and began to remove goods from it, but the woman sensed their movements and began to scream. The men did not give up on the backpack, and threatened her with the knife.
As soon as she was finished speaking, one of the men holding a gun asked the two suspects if the story were true. Both admitted it was true, and begged for forgiveness.
Kim Jong Il’s Special Directive …Terrorizing the entire country with Summary Executions
The two men with guns introduced themselves to the crowd who had gathered as having received policy direction from Kim Jong Il and been dispatched from the central government. They then asked the crowd “Everyone, what has to be done with these two?” Shockingly, the crowd answered, as if parrots, that “They must be killed.”
The two armed men had come as members of a Special Team who had received Kim Jong Il’s “Directive to Restore Social Order.”
The Special Team verified the suspects ages, names, and addresses. One then put his gun to the forehead of a kneeling suspect and proclaimed “For disrupting social order and threatening the life of a woman during a robbery, you are hereby punished in the name of the people.”
With a “Bang!” the one kneeling sprawled across the railroad tracks and blood splattered all over the ground. Seeing his partner die instantly, the other suspect fainted.
Hearing the sound of the gunshot, the Station Safety Officer, Guards (similar to a Military Policeman in the South), and soldiers assigned to the Defense Security Company, (similar to a military intelligence official in the South) came running with their flashlights shinning. The Special Team demanded to see the identification cards of the soldiers who had gathered, and then quietly disappeared.
The Safety Officer and the soldiers were unable to say one word to the Special Team, and took the woman and remaining suspect and cleared the area. Having witnessed the entire spectacle, my blood ran cold.
The one-the-spot execution, taking place without any legal investigation or judgment, can only be found in North Korea. As the entire country fell into chaos during the famine of the mid 90’s, Kim Jong Il protected his dictatorship through extreme political terror. It even got to the point where each province was given a quota for how many executions they were to have in a year.
Because of this, summary executions for stealing one sack of corn became frequent. In Pyongyang, Agricultural Secretary Soe Kwan Hee was accused of being an “American Imperialist Spy,” and was publicly executed. Of course, Soe Kwan Hee was made a scapegoat in order to allow Kim Jong Il to evade responsibility for the famine.
Now, ten years later, things have gotten better, however, we can be sure that somewhere, events that are unimaginable to people from the outside world, are taking place in North Korea.
