[imText1]Looking into the recent public trial and execution, which took place in Huiryeong city of North Hamkyung province, it is not hard to find that North Korea is not a law-binding society. According to article 18 of the North Korean constitution articulates, “The law of the DPRK reflects the wishes and interests of the working people and is a basic instrument for State administration. Respect for the law and its strict adherence and execution is the duty of all institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens.” However, it is evident in the video clip, the trial is only a pretend of a legal process, but we are to see even the pretense is ignoring a large part if the legal procedure.
First, No Right of Appeal When One is Dissatisfied with the Charge Against Him
The North Korean criminal law article 251 states, “When one has an opinion again the court decision form the first trial, the plaintiff, lawyer, and defendant can appeal to the High level court (Supreme Court) but the prosecutor cannot make complaints. Once an appeal or a complaint is accepted, the decision of the court cannot be enforced.”
However, we can see that in the recent trial, the attorney reads out the decision of the court, “About the content of the court’s decision, the accused has no right to make appeal,” which is followed by the attorney’s command, “Let it (the execution) take place right away.” Since the attorney is identified as “Attorney Kim Kyung Ju, Court of North Hamkyung province,” the public trial must be the second trial by far. Although the right of the accused to appeal to the Central Court (Supreme Court) is given and secured by the national constitution, the attorney clearly states that he does not. Furthermore, if there is any appeal or complaint, the decision of the court cannot be enforce, but the attorney commands the execution to take place “right away.” Such kind of trail process is unthinkable in a democratic society.
Two, No Lawyers
The right of defendant to hire lawyer is one of the basic of the basic democratic fundamentals. The North Korean criminal code article 169, although it may be for formality only, it states, “defendant, accused, can select a lawyer anytime from the time he is subjected for interrogation by the police for responsibilities and have himself defended.” Actually, attorney, prosecutor, lawyer, and secretary do appear in the video clip.
We can see and hear the attorney reading out the decision of the court but without any process of the court’s making decision. There is not process lawyer and prosecutor’s defenses, and the entire trial ends in twenty minutes. Therefore, a public trial in North Korea is not a trial, but more an announcement of sentence. The accused cannot even make the final statement. The crowd watching the trial cannot understand why the accused are shot to death but only obtain an extreme fear of “if I do wrong, I can also die like that.”
Third, Non-existent “Inner Criminal Code”
The March 1st public execution in near Huiryeong market began with the statement, “This case will be tried in accordance to the Criminal Code art. 290, clause 2, art. 233, art. 216, and art. 104.” The first doubt raised by the statement is the fact that there is no “article 290, clause 2” in the North Korean criminal code.
The North Korean Criminal Code was revised last year, (published date April 24, 2004) by the Supreme People’s Conference Executive Committee edition 432. Article 290 does not exist in the old version, and in the new version, there is no clause or sub-clause belonging to article 290. The question is where the “clause 2” came from.
So far, many North Korean experts argued that there is a separate criminal code applied inside North Korea, which is different from the criminal code published for “display to outside purpose.” This means that the criminal code made for the display purpose clearly states that North Korea respects human rights, but actually, another criminal code exists to control inside of the country. In fact, “The National Safety and Security Department” makes its own decisions not according to national criminal code or trials but according to is own rules. Therefore, the it is assumable that the recent decision at the public trial was also made according to the “criminal code inside the country.”
Four, Legal Grounds Ignored
On the public execution, eleven accused are dragged out. Among them, Choi Jae Kwon and Park Myung Gil are sentenced to death; Kim Sung Hwa, La Young Chul sentenced to life labor camp imprisonment; Sohn Chang Heum and other seven people are sentenced to 10 to 15 years of labor camp imprisonment. Their crimes are violations of “the Criminal Code art. 290, clause 2, art. 233, art. 216, and art. 104” as have mentioned previously.
Article 290 of the criminal code is “crime of abduction,” which generally according to this article, one could be sentenced to 5 to 10 years, over 10 years when abduction is done more than once, and according to the degree of the crime committed, one could be sentenced up to life imprisonment. Article 233 is about “Crime of Illegal National Border Transgression,” and the most one could be sentence to is less than three years of imprisonment and it is same for the Article 104 is about “Crime of Foreign Currency Trafficking.” Lastly, article 216 is about “Crime of Illegal Plantation of Opium and production of drug” and one could be sentenced to 2 to 5 years of imprisonment in case of violation.
A number of defendants seems as though they violated two or three of the criminal code. In that case, usually in a law-ruling society, the punishment of the code that has the highest degree of punishment is to be applied. However, in the given trial, it seem as though all the punishments accumulated according to their crime and even though there was no law that mentioned of “sentence to death,” two of them were sentenced to death and publicly executed.
The only criminal code that one could be sentenced to death accordingly in violation are art. 59 “Crime of National Evangelization,” art. 60, “Crime of Terror,” art. 67, “Crime of Treason of Nation,” and art.278, “Crime of Intentional Murder.” However, these crimes were not mentioned in the trial. Some people could think that an expanded application of art 67 could accuse the criminals for treason of nation, but in that case, the article 67 must have been mentioned. Therefore, in this trial, the accused lost their lies without sufficient legal reasons.
Cruel Actions Only to Create Fear
The recent public execution in North Korea took place ignoring legal process articulated in its national criminal code and the code of legal procedure, and the court’s decision was made arbitrarily and with an utmost cruelty. The North Korean public execution could be interpreted as not an action to carry out the decision of the court but to “make an exemplary case by killing the people cause in the unfortunate time in order to create fear among the people and control the people to maintain the regime longer.”
