[imText1]On October 5th, a stone-cutting factory manager in Suncheon, South Pyongan was publicly executed at a stadium in Suncheon. As for his crime, rooted in history dating back to the Korean War, he was found guilty of fabricating his late father’s credentials in order to conceal the fact that this father worked as a public security general in the years preceding the war under the interim nationalist government. In this capacity, his father worked to suppress leftist uprisings and would have been considered an enemy of the state in what is now Communist North Korea.
If this fact had come to light after his father’s death, generations of descendents would be locked into the lowest class and suffer the worst of hardships under the North Korean government’s multi-dimensional class system. By fabricating his father’s identity, this factory manager and his family had lived among the privileged class for two generations in North Korea.
Good Friends, an aid organization for North Korea, said in a newsletter, “In the midst of 170 thousand people gathered at Suncheon Stadium, the stone-cutting factory manager, who would be 75 this year, went through a pretrial and was publicly executed.”
The newsletter said, “The fact that this manager’s father served as a public security general during the Korean War was disclosed by an inspection team at the Integrity Preservation Headquarters of the National Defense Committee. The main crime of this manager was hiding his father’s credentials and promoting himself as a patriot.”
“In addition to this charge were the crimes of investing his private money, starting a factory and designating his son and daughter factory managers, and setting up 13 phones in the basement of the factory of which three were used for making international calls.”
It was further noted that “after the public execution, due to the exceptionally large crowd that gathered on this day, six died from being trampled by the dispersing crowd and 34 were hurt.”
Also, it relayed, “Three national security headquarter department heads related to this incident were fired, and the party secretary in charge of the city as well as the party secretariats under the department heads have been dismissed.”
“Through this investigation, Central Party leaders who received money from the manager were prosecuted with full force and incidents of corruption incurred by the children of managers were exposed, making related parties apprehensive,” it added.
In particular, the report revealed, “Among the Party cadres, high-level officials who falsely replicated Kim Jong Il’s signature and sold equipment to the provinces were exposed and are likely to be discharged.”
The report relayed that incidents of individuals being exposed while intercepting rice sent by the South are increasing.
The report noted, “Recently in Chongjin, two laborers secretly climbed into a boat carrying South Korean rice and were captured while stealing 500kg. While undergoing interrogation after being dragged to the Security Office, one died from severe beatings and the other received a sentence of seven years of cultural reeducation.”
In addition, it said, “In an alleyway of an apartment building near Chongjin Station, individuals were stopped by a patrol party while in the process of loading corn rice onto a vehicle bound for Kim Chaek City. The corn rice and of course the car were confiscated and those who were caught at the scene received serious injuries from being beaten while struggling with the security officers.”
