2007: A factory manager in a packed stadium
Add comment October 5th, 2008 Headsman
Last year on this day, six people were reportedly trampled to death when a massive crowd stampeded after watching the execution of a 75-year-old factory manager in North Korea.
The man, who is not named in English-language sources I’ve perused, had fabricated his father’s past as a good Communist when in fact dad worked to suppress the reds. That con kept the family among North Korea’s privileged elite for years.
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 — illicitly filmed graphic video included — here.)
And he wasn’t the only one to depart the premises in a body bag. The stampede is said to have occurred after the proceedings as spectators were leaving; the cause, if there was one, is sketchily described, although some news reports call it a “melee.” Thirty-four others were reportedly injuried in the crush.
* The figure 170,000 is also cited.
Update: Quite a silly, late-at-night mistake to initially title this post “a factory owner in a packed stadium”…
Possibly Related Executions
- 1980: Thirteen deposed Americo-Liberian officials
- 1808: The Executions of the Third of May
- 1979: Eleven by a Firing Squad in Iran
Entry Filed under: 21st Century, Capital Punishment, Death Penalty, Disfavored Minorities, Execution, Known But To God, Korea, North Korea, Public Executions, Ripped from the Headlines, Shot, Summary Executions
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