North Korea is considered one of the most closed countries in the world, and the regime in Pyongyang is known for its hard-to-control obsession with the information in which the country’s residents are fed. A chilling example of the cruelty the state is willing to take to motivate its citizens to listen to foreign media was given this week in a fishing town on the country’s east coast.
South Korean media this week released a report by a senior member of the ruling Communist Party that a captain of a small fishing vessel had been executed after admitting to listening to a foreign radio. The senior official said: “In October, a captain of a fishing vessel named Choi was executed by a firing squad after admitting he had been listening to the Free Asia radio station for an extended period of time.”
“Authorities intervened and held a meeting attended by the other 39 fishing industry workers, during which the captain was executed. The person who betrayed him for his activities was his teammates, who noticed rebellious and arrogant behavior on the part of the captain. The officials in charge of Choi were also fired,” he said. The senior official of the “Free Asia” radio station, whose death sentence was listened to.
North Korean defectors have previously claimed that the punishment for listening to foreign radio stations – and especially the “Free Asian Radio” broadcast in the Korean language, can be particularly severe, even a death sentence, but it is an unusual event when executions related to such offenses are indeed exposed.
In addition to executions for petty crimes like eavesdropping on foreign radio, many who have committed far fewer offenses are sent to labor camps, North Korea’s substitute for a prison system. Even after serving their sentences, convicted prisoners are considered inferior in North Korean society and the lower class also passes on to their children.