Killed for watching TV: North Korea executes 80 people in public 'for viewing South Korean movies and owning Bibles' 
 
 
 
 In one, people including women and children were herded into a stadium and forced to watch eight people die from machine gun fire 
 
 The executions are reported to have taken place in several cities 
 
 
 
 By Ted Thornhill 
 
 | 
 
 Several large-scale public executions of around 80 people have taken place in North Korea, according to a South Korean newspaper. 
 
 In one, woman and children were herded into a sports stadium and forced to watch people being shot dead by machine gun fire. 
 
 The executions took place on Sunday November 3, a source told the paper. 
 
 
 
 A South Korean soldier mans the border with North Korea, where reports have emerged of 80 people being publicly executed 
 
 JoongAng Ilbo could not confirm the deaths, but said its source is familiar with the internal affairs of North Korea and had recently visited the country. 
 
 Why the executions took place is difficult to ascertain, but the paper speculates that they may have been carried out to quell unrest and stop capitalist ideology from growing, as they took place in areas of recent economic growth. 
 
 Some of the deaths may also have been a punishment for the perceived crimes of watching South Korean movies, distributing pornography, using prostitutes and possessing Bibles. 
 
 North Koreans are forced to adhere to a doctrine which mixes Marxism with the worship of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung and his descendents. Pictured are soldiers marking the 65th anniversary of the country's founding in Pyongyang 
 
 JoongAng Ilbo reported that in Wonsan, in Kangwon Province, 10,000 people were ordered into Shinpoong Stadium, and forced to watch eight people, who were tied to stakes with sacks over their heads, being killed by machine guns. 
 
 Its source said: ‘I heard from the residents that they watched in terror as the corpses were riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards.’ 
 
 Other executions took place in Chongjin in North Hamgyong Province, Sariwon in North Hwanghae Province and Pyongsong in South Pyongan. 
 
 North Koreans are forced to adhere to the Juche ideology - a doctrine which mixes Marxism with the worship of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung and his descendents. 
 
 But for the past seven years, a Colorado-based preacher, Pastor Foley, and his supporters have been been releasing hydrogen balloons carrying bundles of Bibles into North Korea. 
 
 Last year, they dropped an estimated 50,000 Bibles into the country. ||||| North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered the public executions of 80 people this month to send a message of intolerance of what the communist regime considers corruptive foreign influence. He is shown in this picture from a meeting last month with the country's military leaders. (Korea News Service / ) 
 
 North Korea staged gruesome public executions of 80 people this month, some for offenses as minor as watching South Korean entertainment videos or being found in possession of a Bible, a South Korean newspaper reported Monday. 
 
 The daily JoongAng Ilbo attributed the mass executions to a single, unidentified source, but at least one other news agency, run by North Korean defectors, reported hearing rumors of the killings in seven cities across the reclusive country. 
 
 Authorities in Wonsan, a port on North Korea's eastern coast that is being transformed into a resort in hopes of attracting foreign investment to the impoverished country, gathered more than 10,000 residents in a stadium and forced them to watch the firing-squad executions, the newspaper reported. 
 
 The condemned were lashed to poles, hooded, then sprayed with machine-gun fire, JoongAng Ilbo quoted its source, who reportedly is familiar with North Korean internal affairs and recently returned from the country. 
 
 "I heard from the residents that they watched in terror as the corpses were so riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards," the source was quoted as saying. 
 
 If confirmed, the mass execution would be the most brutal step known to have been taken by the country's 30-year-old leader, Kim Jong Un, who came to power two years ago after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. 
 
 The South Korean newspaper, one of the country's largest and most influential, noted that the executions occurred in cities where the communist leadership is attempting to create entities that can earn hard currency and may have been intended to intimidate workers who stray from the regime's dictatorial social strictures. 
 
 Some of those put to death had been charged with disseminating pornography, JoongAng Ilbo said it was told by its source. 
 
 In August, Kim was reported to have ordered the executions of a dozen entertainers from the Unhasu Orchestra and the Wangjaesan Light Music Band, including ex-girlfriend Hyon Song Wol. Chosun Ilbo, another leading South Korean daily, said the troupe members reportedly filmed themselves having sex and sold the videos on the black market to earn money. 
 
 Monday's report said a South Korean official with business in the North had been told by North Korean authorities that an investigation into the Unhasu affair suggested Kim's wife had been involved in similar prohibited activities. The source suggested that the entertainers were executed to prevent disparaging accounts from circulating about the first lady's behavior. 
 
 None of those executed on Nov. 3 had been accused of capital crimes, which under North Korean law include sedition, treason and terrorism, the newspaper said. But it added that public executions are often carried out as a way of discouraging interest in what the regime considers corrupting foreign influence, which can include using a cellphone, religious proselytizing or viewing pornography. 
 
 "The regime is obviously afraid of potential changes in people's mind-sets and is preemptively trying to scare people off," said an official of the defector-run North Korea Intellectual Solidarity website, Agence France-Presse reported. 
 
 None of the executions were reported to have occurred in Pyongyang, the capital, where the regime nurtures a loyal following among the small elites by focusing its meager development resources on the city. 
 
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 carol.williams@latimes.com ||||| North Korea 'publicly executes 80 people' 
 
 (AFP) – Nov 10, 2013 
 
 Seoul — North Korea publicly executed around 80 people earlier this month, many for watching smuggled South Korean TV shows, a South Korean newspaper reported Monday. 
 
 The conservative JoongAng Ilbo cited a single, unidentified source, but at least one North Korean defector group said it had heard rumours that lent credibility to the front-page report. 
 
 The source, said to be "familiar" with the North's internal affairs and recently returned from the country, said the executions were carried out in seven cities on November 3. 
 
 In the eastern port of Wonsan, the authorities gathered 10,000 people in a sports stadium to watch the execution of eight people by firing squad, the source quoted one eyewitness as saying. 
 
 Most were charged with watching illicit South Korean TV dramas, and some with prostitution. 
 
 Several of the cities, including Wonsan and Pyongsong in the west, have been designated as special economic zones aimed at attracting foreign investment to boost the North's moribund economy. 
 
 The Seoul-based news website, Daily NK, which is run by North Korean defectors and has a wide network of sources, said it had no information on the executions. 
 
 But another defector-run website, North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, said its sources had reported several months ago on plans for a wave of public executions. 
 
 "The regime is obviously afraid of potential changes in people's mindsets and is pre-emptively trying to scare people off," said one website official. 
 
 Watching unsanctioned foreign films or TV -- especially those from the capitalist South -- is a serious offence in North Korea. 
 
 However, efforts to control their distribution have been circumvented by technology, with an increasing number being smuggled in on DVDs, flash drives and mp3 players. 
 
 As well as South Korean soap operas, US shows like Desperate Housewives are believed to have a small but avid following. 
 
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– North Korea has publicly executed some 80 people this month, a source tells a South Korean newspaper. In the city of Wonsan, hooded victims were tied to poles in front of a stadium of 10,000 people, where they were shot with machine guns, the source says. Crimes reportedly included possessing a Bible, watching smuggled South Korean TV shows, and distributing pornography, the Los Angeles Times and AFP report. "I heard from the residents that ... the corpses were so riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards," the source told JoongAng Ilbo, one of the South's top newspapers, which wasn't able to confirm the executions, the Daily Mail notes. The punishments may have been intended to shut down dissent and pro-capitalist sentiment, the JoongAng Ilbo suggests. "The regime is obviously afraid of potential changes in people's mind-sets and is preemptively trying to scare people off," an official at a defectors' website tells AFP. The alleged executions follow a report in August claiming Kim Jong Un's ex-girlfriend was put to death.