North Korean Fisherman Publicly Executed For Illegally Listening To U.S. Funded Radio Broadcast

DailyNK

A local fishing boat captain in North Korea was publicly executed as punishment for listening to a banned foreign radio station, reports say.

The government of North Korea executed the 40-year-old fisherman after he admitted listening to apparently banned radio broadcasts of Radio Free Asia, which is U.S. government-funded. The dictator state imposes very strict rules as to what content their citizens can watch and listen, while denying access to news and information that is shown outside the country’s strict borders.

This man only identified as Chongjin was able to pick up the foreign broadcasts while he would be out in the water off the coast of North Korea.


It is said that Chongjin was turned in by one of his crew members when they docked at a fishing base in the port city of Chongjin, hence the name that was given to him. This crew member reported his “offense” to the local authorities. Chongjin is believed to have once been a radio operator in the military, where he started listening to foreign broadcasts while on service. He was charged with “subversion against the party.”

A source told Radio Free Asia that:

“In mid-October, a captain of a fishing boat from Chongjin was executed by firing squad, on charges of listening to Radio Free Asia regularly over a long period of time. The provincial security department defined his crime as an attempt of subversion against the party. They publicly shot him at the base in front of 100 other captains and managers of the facility’s fish processing plants. They also dismissed or discharged party officials, the base’s administration and the security officers who allowed Choi to work at sea.”

Another source got in touch with the news agency claiming that the crew member who confessed of Chongjin’s crimes had “vengeance for Choi’s arrogant and disrespectful behavior so he reported him to the security department.”

They also said that “it seems that the authorities made an example out of Choi to imprint on the residents that listening to outside radio stations means death.”


Despite numerous acts like this public execution, North Korea has still unsuccessfully failed to completely destroy its citizens’ desire to gain information from the outside world. Two refugees that were able to escape North Korea and now live in the neighboring South told RFA that other North Korean residents often illegally listen to their live broadcasts because they have this ‘curiosity’ for knowledge of the world away from their country.

One said that “we can get a variety of content from CDs and memory sticks, but what North Koreans most want to know is news from the outside. Residents can get many outside broadcasts, but they prefer RFA because it can be heard clearly in the Korean language.”

 

 

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