N.Korean Fisherman Gets Death Penalty For Listening To US Media

The North Korean government goes above and beyond to stop access of its population to outside information. With strict punishments in place, not all however, are deterred from tuning in to a little information.

Reported by RFA, an American agency for global media, a fishing boat captain was executed for secretly tuning in to their radio channel and other forbidden media while at sea.

The fishing boat caption has had a habit of tuning in to overseas broadcasts ever since his military days and confessed to having listened to US government-funded media for the last 15 years.

His crewmen later reported the captain as they arrived at his base in Chongjin.

According to an official statement from the North Hamgyong province, “In mid-October, a captain of a fishing boat from Chongjin was executed by firing squad, on charges of listening to Radio Free Asia regularly over a long period of time.”

“We know that the captain’s surname was Choi and he was in his 40s. He was working out of a fishery base affiliated with the Central Party’s Bureau 39.”

“Choi was the owner of a fleet of over 50 ships. During an investigation by the provincial security department, Captain Choi confessed to listening to RFA broadcasts since the age of 24, when he was serving in the military as a radio operator.”

It is important to note that Bureau 39 refers to the secret organisation tasked to acquire hard currency and maintain a slush fund for North Korean President Kim Jong Un.

Captain Choi certainly was hard done not by just tuning-in to some music, but also the fact that his own crewmen snitched on him.

Also read: S’porean Man Jailed For Supplying Over S$700,000 Worth Of Alcohol To North Korea