Executions in North Korea included two concertmasters
Norman Lebrecht is reporting that two concertmasters of the Unhasu Orchestra were among the 12 North Koreans executed by firing squad on August 20, supposedly for possessing pornography. Kim Jong-un's ex-lover, Hyon Song-wol, was also among those executed.
Here his article in Slipped Disc.
The 12 were all singers, dancers and musicians who accompanied ex-girlfriend of the North Korea’s leader, according to an article in The Telegraph. The 12 were members of two groups, the Unhasu Orchestra or the Wanghaesan Light Music Band, both which have disbanded since the executions. Their colleagues and family members were forced to watch the executions, then sent to prison camps under the presumption of "guilt by association."
The original report appeared in the English-language version of the South Korean The Chosun Ilbo, which also reports that Kim's wife, Ri Sol-ju, was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra before she married him.
Replies (7)
... Can I leave this planet now? Please?
RIP, to those unfortunate souls...
A year or two ago, the North Korean orchestra played a joint show with a French orchestra in Paris. A North Korean violinist named Mun Kyong Jin was a soloist in the concert. I don't know for sure if this is the same person who is mentioned in the article as being killed or not but the names are spelled the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z-5y16vITw
Very sad.
As one musician put it: “This kind of thing has happened and is likely to continue for countless ordinary citizens in North Korea all the time. Western leaders know how horrific things are in North Korea, which has nuclear weapons, tested them in violation of international rules, and repeatedly threatened to rain them upon the US. They know of North Korea’s underground slave-labor camps. What exactly are they to do? What carrots or sticks do they have to change the behavior of this regime? If a regime does not want anything the West could offer (e.g. trade or capital) or [has] fear [of] any [military] sanctions (e.g. being bombed to smithereens), then the West has no leverage.”
The only hope may lie in its own citizens rising up united against their dictator – someday – and he knows it and that is why he subjects them through great fear, continuously, and further, any access to external knowledge & information (and just possessing one Bible) is "pornography" in NK punishable by death without delay and trial.
One would not be surprised if the sex-film allegations are wholly fabricated.
No, one wouldn't! Who'd DARE to engage in this sort of thing in a regime like that? Unless, of course, they were made to do it by the regime in the first place ...
I remember hearing on the radio of women fleeing North Korea in order to avoid being forced to have abortions and being deported back by the Chinese authorities to certain execution (I would not be entirely surprised if the attitude of some Chinese cadres had improved since that time).
If there is a video I expect that it is not pornographic as we would understand it. Have you seen the South Korean pop videos? They have lots of scantily-clad women gyrating around, etc. I expect that it would be more along those lines, and deemed immoral, decadent, etc.
"A source said some allegedly had Bibles in their possession" (Chosun Ilbo). If that's true, good for the "some" if they had faith in addition.
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August 30, 2013 at 06:22 PM · Disgusting, RIP to all of these souls.