South Korea's government-run think tank accused North Korea's communist regime of carrying out public executions of people suspected of violating the country's strict Wuhan coronavirus control protocols in a report released Wednesday.
North Korea imposed perhaps the world's strictest coronavirus lockdown in 2020 after a new coronavirus outbreak in central Wuhan, China. Communist dictator Kim Jong-un has reportedly sealed off his porous border with China, destroying food and other vital supplies, and forcing anyone he spots near the border to cross. issued a “shoot to kill'' order to soldiers. The regime is also believed to have imposed strict sanitary mask requirements and limits on social gatherings, as well as isolation procedures for people suspected of being infected.
A North Korean soldier walks near the Yalu River near Sinuiju, on the other side of the Chinese border city of Dandong, on April 16, 2017. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
The Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU), a research center and think tank supported by the South Korean government, cited refugees from the country who testified to the existence of public executions of violators of coronavirus protocols. This revelation was published in the 2023 Annual Human Rights White Paper on North Korea. published on wednesday.
“The North Korean authorities rounded up the population and publicly executed those who violated quarantine measures,” an anonymous North Korean defector was quoted as saying. translation KINU Human Rights Newspaper article by local news site NK News. The newspaper noted that the human rights report was the first to document an execution linked to coronavirus lockdowns and quarantine measures, but its website also said it was “the country's first case of illegal drug sales after the coronavirus outbreak. He said he had exposed “notices threatening the death penalty”. [Wuhan coronavirus] In May 2022. ”
Korean news communication service United He pointed out that the KINU white paper does not provide any details on when the executions took place, who was targeted, why they were executed, or the method of execution. It also does not explain how the regime would justify rallies for executions if they were to take place during the lockdown. But the North Korean report says researchers don't want to provide the regime with enough information to identify defectors and potentially imprison their families in labor camps or execute them. Lack of detail is not uncommon.
“The white paper also interviewed 70 other North Korean defectors who came to South Korea between 2018 and 2023, and says it obtained testimony that suggests the number of public executions may decrease.'' News added. “However, it is too early to conclude whether public executions have decreased.” Are they actually becoming less common, or are they being carried out away from public view? ”
Elsewhere in the white paper, KINU documented evidence that the secretive North Korean regime added a “special anti-virus law” to its criminal code, allowing for the execution of those found guilty of violations. The regime also reportedly expanded the scope of the death penalty for crimes related to “access to outside information.” North Korea strictly prohibits the consumption of media that is not produced by North Korea's communist regime.
North Korea's repressive coronavirus lockdown measures began in early 2020 and were only lifted in July 2023, when regime media began publishing photos of people not wearing sanitary masks for the first time since the pandemic began. It seems so. The Kim regime spent much of its first two years denying that not a single coronavirus case had been recorded, but it also criticized North Korea's friendly relations with China and its illegal business operations in North Korea. Given the prevailing circumstances, most Kim regime experts thought the possibility of this happening was extremely low. Mutual border along the Yanok River.
Kim Jong-un fervently apologized and sobbed during a speech in October 2020, privately adding to suspicions that the Wuhan coronavirus was crippling North Korea's decrepit communist health system. Ta.
“I have been entrusted with the great responsibility of leading this country to protect the cause of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Il, with the trust of all the people, but my efforts and sincerity will remove evil spirits from the people.'' “I feel the hardships in their lives,” Kim said, according to state media. “I solemnly swear on this occasion that I will always live up to the people's trust and remain faithful to that trust, even if I am torn apart and shattered in order to protect the tremendous trust placed in me by the people.'' ”
Kim did not explain the details of his apology.
Gen. Robert B. Abrams, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said in a September 2020 interview that Kim Jong-un had ordered his soldiers to “kill those who are going to kill him,” so he ordered soldiers to kill anyone along the China-North Korea border. He said much of the country's commerce came to an abrupt halt. To cross the border.
“They have North Korean SOF.” [special operation forces] “We're staffing these strike forces and they're issuing shoot-to-shoot orders, and this is basically to prevent the coronavirus from entering North Korea,” Abrams said.
North Korea finally admitted in May 2022 that it had recorded a case of the Wuhan coronavirus within its borders. Within days, North Korean media claimed that more than 1.2 million people had been diagnosed with coronavirus infections from “late April” to mid-May 2022.
In August 2022, Kim Jong Un declared a “glorious victory” over the coronavirus, but did not lift lockdown protocols for another year.
