North Korea: "labour hero" executed for setting up private farm

January 4, 2008: A co-operative farm chief once honoured by North Korea's founding president as a labour hero has been publicly executed for “starting a private farm”.

The episode was reported by the South Korean humanitarian group, Good Friends. The unidentified man and two colleagues were shot by firing squad on December 5 in Pyongsong, north of Pyongyang.

According to the group the condemned were executed by 90 bullets and that now their families have been interned in a concentration camp. They are guilty of having privately sold products in order to maintain their “luxurious” lifestyle.

The association reports that the president of the co-op had been honoured as a labour hero.

Then president Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994, had several times praised the farm chief and once gave him a watch engraved with his autograph. The farm chief was accused of failing to register 79 hectares of farmland that had been cultivated over the past decade. He allegedly fed retired soldiers with the produce and used them as his private bodyguards.

Given his honourable career, he was charged with "betraying the guidance" of the late president, Good Friends said, adding that executions of "labour heroes" were rare. Following the executions, Good Friends said each province summoned co-operative farm chiefs and local party secretaries and warned them of harsh punishment for diverting produce.

North Korea launched the cooperative farming system in the 1950’s. By 1957 the process was almost completely concluded with over 94% of agricultural land under the control of the cooperatives. But the initiative revealed itself to be disastrous: the country suffered famine in the 1990s in which hundreds of thousands died, and still relies on international aid to feed millions.

Sources: AsiaNews, 04/01/2008