 
When spring comes in NK, blank increases.
Ah, I bet it is something sad.
Yeah. It’s actually worse.
I just immediately get this feeling that the answer would be something like when spring comes in NK, more people will die.
I think it’ll be a pretty sad topic.
Spring in NK
Increased tearing? Increased tearing.
Yeah. There’s something that actually increases.
More people get ringworms? Due to some kind of a nutritional deficiency?
Thieves increase when spring comes in NK.
Do we have an answer already? Please give us the answer.
Public executions increase in NK’s spring.
Why? Why?
Is it because more people steal in the spring?
Why would they hold a public execution in the spring?
Professor Kang, Is this really true?
So you guys had before what North Koreans eat during the season of spring poverty.
Although the food looks unappetizing to us, it’s still very scarce in NK.
Therefore, during this season, an increased number of people cross over to China for food.
So in order to prevent this, public executions are held in every city to warn people.
The message is this, “If you get caught during your escape, you will get killed.”
The messages that are embedded in the increased public executions in the spring season are
1) No escaping
2) No illegal activities
3) No capitalism influence
4) Follow the current governmental system.
Okay.
One of my neighbor’s husband has escaped from NK but she kept this a secret from the State Political Security Department.
She also started smuggling things like CDs
and she eventually got killed by the firing squad
Does anyone else have an experience of watching a public execution?
Yeah. We all do.
I was young during when the NK famine was taking place and
there was this open field near my town.
Our district representative visited each household to notify us that a public execution is going to be held at the field.
He said everyone in our town had to attend the execution.
So we all went to the field and saw this trial held for two young men, a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old.
The judge stated their charges and asked them, “Do you agree with this?”
and the two bent down their heads like real criminals and replied, “Yes.”
And the judge announced that there will be a public execution.
There were no juries or anything.
It wasn’t a proper judicial procedure.
And the soldiers brought some bundle of cotton put it inside the two men’s mouths and blindfolded them.
Then the State Security soldiers brought them to the two tall stakes that was already there and tied them up to the stakes.
And the 6 soldiers started shooting.
We heard a person shouting “Fire!” and the actual sound of gunfire followed immediately.
And the sound of gunfire echoed through the spring sky.
My grandmother started crying from the very beginning of the trial and repeatedly murmured “Oh those poor things.
And I felt very uncomfortable because we can get in trouble for crying.
So I kept on telling her to stop crying.
After the gunfire stopped,
one of the men that was standing right in front of me, his head that was bent down started to slowly rise.
People started whispering, “Oh his head is rising."
His head is rising.
He’s still alive.
However, his head that was rising fell down again and never came up again.
On my way home after the execution, I saw myself cursing at the two young men.
I said, “Oh those stupid bastards.”
They were direly craving for some protein and they got caught while stealing meat.
I cursed, “You guys should’ve at least finished eating your meat before getting caught.
Stupid. Why were you guys so slow!”
Before the NK famine, the soldiers didn’t used to put a gag in the criminal’s mouth when they bring him out.
So when after the judge announced the verdict, the criminal was able to reply “yes” or say his last words.
However, when after the NK famine started, the criminal, tied to a stake, began to vilify and curse Kim Jong-Il.
These incidents started to happen very often.
So, for example in Musan-County, the soldiers already make the criminal look half-dead even before they get out from the car, even before getting tied to a stake.
So the person does not look normal anymore by the time when the State Security Department soldiers bring him out for his trial.
He is covered in feces and urine and gets tied to a stake looking like a corpse with his face down.
Even when he looks spiritless and dead, they still shove down a gag down his throat before proceeding the trial.
Even when he is half-unconscious, he can still hear the word “execution” and he starts to struggle very hard.
You can see that he wants to say “I am not guilty. Please let me live.”
But the gag in his mouth only allows him to make “Mmm” sounds.
When you’re watching all of this, you will start to shudder with anger.
The human form is all gone.
After 6 months of the preliminary trial, the convict appears at the public execution site.
The convict no longer looks like a human being.
He’s face looks like a skull and he’s extremely pale because he hasn’t seen the sun for months.
His bony body starts to struggle.
3 shooters point their rifles at one convict.
And when they shove down a gag in his mouth while tying him to a stake, he struggles and tries to spit out the gag.
Then the soldiers start to beat him and yell at him to stay still.
When you are there watching the execution with you own eyes, you can’t help but start crying.
I mean the whole process is really none of my business but I’m still afraid.
I got this thought, ‘I can be like him one day’ and my legs starts to shake.
Some people with weak hearts pee in their pants at the spot.
In NK, there’s no age limit to who can or cannot watch the public execution.
So everyone from four, five year old little children to elderly seniors watch the execution together.
That’s why the traumas from childhood continue to last and affect us
until when we come to South Korea (SK) and try to settle down here.
Ah, I see…
So we’ve been talking about how there are more public executions in the spring,
but is there anyone here that escaped in the spring?
Yes. I escaped from NK on April 19th with my family.
The water was still extremely cold in April.
It was because the winter ice was still melting.
The water came all the way up to my neck and it was freezing cold.
I mean although it’s spring in April, it’s still very cold.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I mean it’s cold and all but what makes me wonder is that you forced yourself to escape
even though it’s scarier and tougher in the spring.
Why is that?
Yeah.
Our entire family escaped from NK on April 8th.
Why it’s so difficult to escape in April is because Kim Jong-Il’s birthday is in February and Kim Il-Sung’s birthday is in April.
So the security becomes stricter during this season.
Also, it was during the season of spring poverty and we were all extremely malnourished and skinny.
So when crossing the river, we’ll constantly fall down even when the current is slow and the water is shallow.
We all knew that we might die while crossing the river.
But the only thing that drove us was that we all also knew that crossing this river is the only way we’ll survive.
I mean when you watch the public execution, you come to realize that you’ll either get killed at the public execution or you’ll die due to starvation.
So I thought, if I know that I’ll die either way, I will at least give it a try and cross the river with my last hope.
Okay. So you successfully made it to the other side.
You crossed thinking something amazing would happen but didn’t you feel very lost at first?
So as you know, in NK, travelling overseas is forbidden.
So when I first arrived in China, it was a whole new world.
There were lots of cabs on the street and shiny streetlights were everywhere at night.
But while all of this was happening, I thought about my school friends back home in NK.
I started feeling very wistful when thinking about my friends that are still in NK.
So it still makes me cry to think about my friends and I miss them very much.
I can imagine that you have those moments when you really miss your friends.
I am not sure if I’ll be able to see them before the two countries’ reunify
