In the latest sign that North Korea is focused on cracking down on outside influences and instilling fear in the people, MBC, a South Korean broadcaster, has released video footage of a public trial in Shinuiju. The defendants? People suspected of watching and listening to South Korean movies and songs.
During the trial, which appears to have occurred in Shinuiju Public Stadium, a judge can be heard saying, “They were arrested for committing the crime of putting one South Chosun movie and 75 South Chosun songs on recorders, watching and listening to them.”
The news reporter covering the video claims that nine suspects were tried at the event for crimes violating ‘socialist culture’, including prostitution.
According to the judge, “They established the surroundings for prostitution and earned money from it by conniving with an unemployed woman to prostitute her three times.”
Even though the video footage did not show the final sentences being delivered, defectors say the suspects were probably sentenced to more than five years in prison.
Tough sentences can be guaranteed because such public trials are only held, one defector who came to South Korea in 2010 from North Hamkyung Province explained, “when the authorities feel the need to present a model and scare the people.”
He went on, “For a light sentence the authorities do not summon a public trial, because this is only to scare people by arousing fear in society, particularly in terms of that specific issue. In this case, South Korean cultural waves via dramas, movies and songs are the issue.”
The defector said the sentence would have already been decided by the municipal court which will have taken the case from the provincial Prosecutors Office.
He added, “By the time they are dragged to the public trial, the suspects already have their hair shaved off because they are supposed to be imprisoned in reeducation camps for at least five years,” but went on, “It would not be effective as a model if people said ‘five years would not be so bad.’ Therefore, the judges tend to put several different crimes on the same suspects in order to expand their sentences and arouse an atmosphere of fear.”
The Daily NK has already cited a number of inside stories which back claims that the authorities are currently trying to cultivate such a climate of fear and clamp down on dissent.
The defector backed this claim, saying, “Since a public trial is held less than once a year in each city, the holding of a public trial in Shinuiju means they are trying to block the wind from South Korea by threatening the people.”
The Daily NK has reported attempted crackdowns on drugs and inspections over smuggling, crossing of the border and other related issues since late last year.
