NORTH KOREA: A Japanese non-government organisation has released a video showing what it says are summary trials and public executions of defectors in North Korea.
Shot with a concealed camera, one scene shows a man being shot to death by a firing squad in front of about 1,000 spectators in what the NGO says is the northern city of Yuson, close to the Chinese border.
The executed man, identified as Han Bok-Nam, is accused by a security official in the video of being an "atrocity in human skin" who had "lured sweet women with lying words" and "sold them to human traffickers abroad" - a cover charge for aiding defectors, says the organisation.
"Helping anyone escape from that country is classed as criminal activity and is termed "human trafficking" or "abduction", it claims.
In a second scene, two identified men are also executed by firing squad after being accused of trying to defect from the country. The NGO, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, says the killings took place on March 1st and 2nd in front of the families of the condemned men.
"This evidence proves what we have been saying for some time and what has been common testimony from defectors coming out of North Korea," said Hiroshi Kato, general secretary of the NGO. "The Pyongyang government is killing people who are caught and brought back. We believe these sort of public executions take place every week."
Hundreds of thousands of defectors from the north are scattered throughout Asia, including an estimated 200-300,000 in China alone, where most are hiding from authorities who consider them illegal migrants.
Rumours have long circulated that among those caught and repatriated to North Korea, at least some are killed as an example to others.
"The purpose of these executions is political. The government is saying to those people who are watching, 'This is what happens when you try to cross the border'," said Mr Kato.
The footage, which has already been released to a number of Japanese TV networks, shows 12 suspects being executed for crimes including illegal production of opium, and the buying and selling foreign currency, as well as illegal exit and entry.