2005: Han Bok-nam, whose death was illicitly filmed
March 2nd, 2008 Headsman
On this date in 2005, at an outdoor trial near Yuson, North Korea, Han Bok-nam was sentenced to death for trafficking across the nearby Chinese border and immediately executed by firing squad.
Hard information on death sentences from the opaque People’s Republic is notoriously rare on the ground. This day’s execution, and two in a nearby location the previous day, became known thanks to an illicit video smuggled out of the country in the following weeks — a gutsy operation that might well have exposed its perpetrators to a death sentence of their own had they been detected.
The 12-minute film — showing bicycle-riding citizens summoned to attend the grisly spectacle for maximum salutary effect — made international headlines and proved at least a momentary embarrassment for Pyongyang. This three-minute excerpt of the events of March 2 has been made freely available with English narration.
Caution: This video contains graphic footage.
Also on this date
- 1886: David Roberts, dutiful son
- 1942: Jakub Lemberg and family
- 2006: Ali Afrawi and Mehdi Nawaseri
- 1974: Salvador Puig Antich and Heinz Ches, the last garroted in Spain
- 1585: William Parry, Vile and Base
Entry Filed under: 21st Century,Common Criminals,Mature Content,North Korea,Public Executions,Ripped from the Headlines,Shot,Summary Executions,Treason
October 5th, 2008 at 1:38 am
[...] According to the South Korean nonprofit Good Friends, he faced a snap tribunal and immediate execution in Suncheon this day, in a stadium with 150,000-plus* onlookers, part of a campaign of stepped-up public executions that Good Friends says (.doc) has been driven by the insular country’s decade-long famine. (See another one — graphic video included — here.) [...]
October 7th, 2009 at 1:30 am
[...] supposed to be a euphemism for aiding refugees escaping to China in the area that also generated an infamous execution film broadcast on Japanese television in 2005. (And other death sentences earlier in 2007. North Korea [...]
November 21st, 2012 at 1:30 am
[...] Han Bok-nam, whose public shooting in North Korea was filmed and smuggled out of the country [...]