North Korean escapee recalls seeing public execution at age 9
· UPIJuly 3 (Asia Today) -- A North Korean escapee told an international conference in France that she first witnessed a public execution at age 9 and that people forced to watch such killings often suffer lasting psychological trauma.
Eunju Kim, a North Korean human rights activist and co-author of the memoir "A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea," testified at the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris.
The three-day congress, held from Tuesday through Thursday, brought together death penalty abolitionists, policymakers and human rights advocates from around the world. The event was organized by the French nonprofit Together Against the Death Penalty with support from France, the European Union and Switzerland.
The Transitional Justice Working Group, a Seoul-based organization that documents North Korean human rights abuses, said it was the first time North Korea's use of public executions had been addressed at the congress.
Kim described the first execution she witnessed as a child and discussed the psychological consequences for North Koreans ordered to observe executions.
The rights group also presented findings on executions under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and called for stronger international pressure on Pyongyang.
In April, the organization published a report titled "Mapping North Korea's Executions Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic." The study examined executions and death sentences carried out before and after North Korea closed its borders during the pandemic.
Ethan Hee-Seok Shin of the organization said North Korea's executions frequently appear to be extrajudicial and arbitrary, with defendants denied fair trials.
"When international human rights standards, the 2014 report of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea and the findings of U.N. working groups are considered together, North Korea's actions clearly constitute crimes against humanity," Shin said.
The 2014 commission concluded that North Korean authorities had committed systematic, widespread and grave human rights violations, including extermination, murder, torture, imprisonment and enforced disappearance.
The Transitional Justice Working Group asked U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to place greater emphasis on executions when reporting on North Korea's human rights situation at the U.N. General Assembly.
Members of the organization also visited the French Foreign Ministry to discuss executions, enforced disappearances and North Korea's transnational repression across national borders and through the Internet.
The group said it agreed with French officials to develop further cooperation and information sharing.
Elizabeth Salmón, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, cited the group's execution report during the congress.
Salmón said her report to the U.N. General Assembly in October would focus on the severity of executions in North Korea and violations of the right to life. She is scheduled to submit her annual General Assembly report in October.
French President Emmanuel Macron opened the congress and reaffirmed France's support for the worldwide abolition of capital punishment.
The World Congress Against the Death Penalty has been held every three years since its launch in 2001 and is one of the largest international gatherings devoted to ending capital punishment.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260703010001210