Pyongyang: three men put to death for “bad management”
Pyongyang (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Pyongyang has executed three men, guilty of financial errors and bad management. The espisodes, which took place in February and March, were reported in an edition of NK In&Out magazine quoting an organisation for human rights in North Korea (NKnet).
Oh Kum Chol, head of the Haeju garrison of the Defence Security Command of the People’s Army, was killed last March before a crowd of 170 thousand people. The man, who was in charge of the Command for internal security, was officially condemned for “adultery”. Local sources however reveal that Oh was really accused of defrauding circa 1.8 million US dollars from one of the children of Chang Wool Hwa, a Chinese businessman who had helped Kim Il-sung –Kim Jong-il’s father and Father of the Nation – in the war against the South. Chang is regarded as a “symbol of Sino-North Korean cooperation” and his children are important figures in trade between the two nations.
The second episode took place in February: two officials from the Ministry of Electric Industry were executed for “shutting down the electricity supply” to the Sunjin Steel Mill in Kimchaek, North Hamkyung Province. The mill is an important cog in the wheels of Sino-North Korean trade. It is alleged that Kim Jong Il himself actually ordered that electricity be diverted from the steel mill to Pyongyang, but that the act of following the order caused considerable damage to the mill. The executions were carried out on February 20th.
After a ban of more than seven years caused by International pressure, in 2007 North Korea resumed public executions; among the first to be killed was the manager of a factory, because he had “phoned abroad”. The death penalty is legal in North Korea under the communist dictatorship and is applied to many crimes. Pyongyang claims it “has never violated human rights”, but more than 150 thousand detainees live in inhuman conditions in prisons across the country.
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12/02/2016 15:14
27/04/2020 09:17
