A North Korean young man in his twenties was beaten to death by a group of soldiers on Aug. 28, which is celebrated as Youth Day in North Korea.
A source in North Korea told Daily NK on Sept. 8 that a young man who had attended a Youth Day dance party in the Munsu neighborhood of the Taedonggang (Taedong River) District of Pyongyang was on his way home around 10 pm when he was ganged up on by soldiers. The young man later died from his injuries.
The young man and a woman in his company got into a quarrel with three soldiers who provoked them by making flirtatious comments to the woman. The quarrel soon turned physical, and the young man was knocked out in a savage beating by the soldiers.
The woman who was with him reported the incident to the police, but by the time they arrived, the assailants had already vanished, the source said.
The police took the unconscious young man to a nearby hospital, where he died the next day, the source explained.
The woman who had been at the scene reportedly described the events in detail during police questioning, saying that soldiers who seemed to be drunk had ruthlessly pummeled the young man with their fists and feet until he lost consciousness.
The police have begun searching for suspects in the case based on the woman’s testimony. More specifically, they asked army bases in the area to help them find soldiers of an age and rank that match the woman’s description.
According to the source, the Pyongyang police are currently narrowing the scope of their investigation given the likelihood that the assailants are among the soldiers mobilized for the “10,000 homes” building project in the city’s Hwasong District.
The police are reportedly taking the incident very seriously and are viewing it in political terms because it took place in Pyongyang on Youth Day.
“While soldiers are occasionally involved in violent incidents, it’s unusual for those incidents to cause fatalities as this one did. Along with being due to poor character, the violent behavior of these soldiers may also have been an erratic outburst based on frustration over their complete lack of romantic opportunities during their long years of military service,” the source said.
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