North Korea Publicly Executes Six for Sex Trafficking, Including Four Officials

Authorities in the North Korean capital Pyongyang have publicly executed six people, including four party officials, for their involvement in a prostitution ring that sold sex with female students of prestigious performing arts universities, sources in the country told RFA.


The six were executed by firing squad on July 20 in Pyongyang. They were accused of buying sex or pimping in a network of paid trysts between officials and students at a high-end public bathhouse patronized by the city’s elites, the sources said.


According to one source, the execution order may have been given by leader Kim Jong Un, a supporter of the arts and the two universities from which the women were procured.


“I was at the scene of the public execution and saw four Pyongyang party officials and two pimps being executed for organized prostitution,” an official of the Pyongyang municipal judicial agency told RFA Thursday.


“This particular case involved long-term organized prostitution for officials, using [private] karaoke rooms at Munsuwon, located in Tongdaewon district,” the source said.


The source said that many more people were implicated than just the six who were publicly executed in Pyongyang’s Ryongsong district on July 20.


“Many people, especially party officials and policymakers in Pyongyang are involved in this case,” the source said.


“The head of Munsuwon and even famous movie stars conspired to arrange sexual encounters with the Central Committee and other [Korean Workers’] Party officials, offering female students in their 20s a side job with guaranteed pay of more than [U.S.] $500 per month,” said the source.


“The women involved are college students in their early to mid-20s attending the Pyongyang University of Music and Dance, or the Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts,” the source said.


Kim Jong Un said to be angered


The prostitution ring was exposed when several students were shocked after learning what their jobs entailed and went to the police, the source said.


“When the female college students received money without knowing what it was for, and were then forced to have sex, they reported it to law enforcement authorities,” the source said.


“They arrested and investigated those involved in prostitution. It was reported to the Highest Dignity because of the severity of the case,” the source said, using an honorific term to refer to Kim Jong Un.


“Kim Jong Un, who was enraged by the students at his favorite schools becoming involved in the sex trade, appears to have ordered the execution by shooting,” the source said.


While prostitution is illegal in North Korea, it is generally tolerated, but with occasional crackdowns through which authorities can extract bribes from those caught in the act. According to North Korean law, prostitution carries a sentence of one to five years of hard labor.


“There have been many cases of prostitution in Pyongyang recently, but no one has been shot to death over it,” the source said.


“It seems to be that because central officials and college students are involved, the authorities wanted to make an example through the public execution.”


A second source, a resident of Pyongyang who requested anonymity for security reasons, confirmed the executions, saying “many Pyongyang citizens” were in attendance.


“Public bathhouses in major cities, including Munsuwon in Pyongyang, are used as a base for crimes like prostitution and drugs,” the second source said.


“High-end bathhouses like Munsuwon, or Eundeokwon in the provinces, are particular in that the crimes [involve] high-ranking officials and the rich,” said the second source.


Warning to officials


The second source said that the public execution was a warning to officials who abuse their rank.


“Corruption and moral debauchery among the central and municipal officials has gone too far in recent years,” the source said, adding, “That’s why the authorities [are stoking] alarm in the officials through this case,” the second source said.


“Although the case seems to have been concluded by the public shooting of sex traffickers this time, investigations by law enforcement continue to reveal college students becoming involved in sex trafficking crimes,” said the second source.


As the authorities continue to investigate female students at colleges in Pyongyang, it is hard to know what the aftermath of this particular case will be or how far it will go.”


Public execution is relatively common in North Korea.


The Transnational Justice Working Group (TJWG), a South Korea-based NGO, in a 2019 report identified 318 sites in North Korea where public executions had occurred, based on interviews with 610 refugees that had escaped to South Korea.


About 83 percent said they had seen an execution and 53 percent said authorities on at least one occasion forced them to watch, sometimes with crowds numbering in the thousands.


According to the report, Offenses ranged from “murder or attempted murder, stealing copper, human trafficking, stealing cows and other forms of property, and economic crimes.”

North Korea Publicly Executes Six for Sex Trafficking, Including Four Officials

For my money the Epstein pedos should be given short sentences, to be served in Noko.

Well, in case there are atrocities (like human trafficking, etc) happening in North Korea that are punished as per their law, should we be concerned?

Or should we assume that there are no criminals in North Korea as they are in other countries, in some of them punished also by execution?

Hard Labor For 50 North Korean Arts College Students Among 200 Caught in Prostitution Raid

Authorities in North Korea have sent more than 50 female students of two prominent Pyongyang performing arts colleges to a labor camp for their alleged involvement in a prostitution ring that catered to the capital city’s elites, sources in the country told RFA Wednesday.


The sources, who told RFA that the prostitution crackdown has spread to the provinces, said many of the women were driven into prostitution by poverty brought on by endless demands from their highly selective schools for fees.


RFA previously reported that four party officials and two others were executed by firing squad on July 20 in Pyongyang, accused of buying sex or pimping in a network of paid trysts between senior officials and students at a high-end public bathhouse.


Sources told RFA last month they believed that the executions could have been ordered by leader Kim Jong Un, a supporter of the arts, who was said to be angered that the students, on track to be future film stars, were selling themselves.


"I know that about 50 female college students at the Pyongyang University of Music and Dance and Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts were punished for prostitution from three to six months in a disciplinary labor center," a Pyongyang official, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told RFA's Korean Service.


The investigation revealed that some 200 students in the schools were connected to the sex ring, with most punished with reeducation. Sources said investigations into colleges and universities in other parts of the country were now underway.


“A joint investigation was conducted by the Central Committee and law enforcement authorities into [the two schools] after the public executions," the source said.


"It was found through that investigation that more than 200 students were involved," the source added.


Schools squeeze students for cash


Though many of the students were implicated, about half of them were not punished as harshly because they had only loose connections, according to the source.


"About 100 were sentenced only to reeducation sessions because they weren't deeply involved. But about 50 who were suspected of being habitually involved in the sex trade itself, or leading their fellow students into prostitution, were reportedly expelled from the school and sent to a disciplinary labor center to be punished," the source said.


fMany of the students involved were hard-pressed for money – drained by arbitrary fees paid to the prestigious schools, which are under government pressure to raise money.


“The central education authorities give economic tasks to colleges and universities, so they collect large amounts of money from the students every day. The female college students who have difficult family circumstances are thereby forced into prostitution.”


Since the Pyongyang scandal, investigators have turned their attention to colleges and universities in other parts of the country.


Authorities in North Hamgyong province have begun a crackdown on the sex trade at schools in Chongjin, the province’s largest city.


“An intensive crackdown on sex trade workers was conducted in Chongjin from July 20 to 30,” a member of a law enforcement agency, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA.


“About 40 people involved in prostitution were caught,” the second source said.


“I know that among the 40 women who were arrested for prostitution, many are students at colleges in Chongjin,” the second source said, adding, “Recently the colleges started raising money from the students on various pretexts, so the female students in difficult circumstances jump into the sex trade.”


Actors banished


The second source said that prostitution among college students is commonplace, and is a reflection of the people’s difficult living circumstances.


“Unless the economic difficulties of young people are resolved, especially the excessive burden on female college students, it will be difficult to root out prostitution by punishment alone,” the second source said.


The arts students were not the only casualties of the investigation—several North Korean film personalities were also punished, the first source said.


"The case also involved well-known actors who were highly regarded by [former leaders] Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,” the Pyongyang official said.


“The actors, who served as professors at the [two Pyongyang] schools, were able to avoid execution. They were, however, banished into internal exile in rural areas,” the source added.


Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il had been a champion of the cinema, having fashioned himself as a visionary director with several films under his belt, all of which are widely considered to be propaganda.


While prostitution is illegal in North Korea, it is generally tolerated, but with occasional crackdowns through which authorities can extract bribes from those caught in the act.


RFA reported in 2018 that authorities were cracking down on Chinese businessmen who were caught buying sex in the Rason Special Economic Zone in the country’s northeast. In some cases, the businessmen were made to pay bribes as high as U.S. $10,000.

Hard Labor For 50 North Korean Arts College Students Among 200 Caught in Prostitution Raid