A South Korean newspaper recently reported that as of this month, North Korea has staged 80 public executions of its people, including some for minor alleged offenses such as watching South Korean entertainment videos or posessing pornography or a copy of the Bible, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The news agency, the daily JoongAng Ilbo, one of South Korea's largest and most influential newspapers, as well as a newspaper run by North Korean defectors who have escaped the country, reported on rumors of public killings in at least seven North Korean cities, including in Wonsan, in which 10,000 people were allegedly gathered in a stadium and forced to witness executions of eight people by firing squads.
According to JoongAng Ilbo's sources who are "familiar" with the country's internal affairs, the eight people condemed to death in Wonsan were tied to stakes, "hooded and sprayed with machine-gun fire."
"I heard from the residents that they watched in terror as the corpses were so riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards," an insider told the newspaper.
At least ten people were reportedly killed in seven different cities, including "Wonsan in Kangwon Province, Chongjin in North Hamgyong Province, Sariwon in North Hwanghae Province and Pyongsong in South Pyongan."
Back in August, North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, ordered his ex-girlfriend Hyon Song Wol along with dozens of other entertainers from the Unhasu Orchestra and the Wangjaesan Light Music Band to die by firing squad for allegedly participating in black market pornographic films. South Korean officials speculate that the entertainers affiliated with Hyon Song Wol were killed to prevent "disparaging accounts from circulating," according to the Los Angeles Times.
"As the news that people were brutally killed in public executions spread in the countryside, the people have been spreading rumors that say that Kim Jong-un has started a terror campaign in response to the Ri Sol-ju's pornography scandal," a source told JoongAng Ilbo.
No executions were reported in the capital city of Pyongyang.
