North Korea 'executed 70 defectors'

North Korea has executed 70 defectors who were captured in China and sent home to discourage its citizens from fleeing the Stalinist country, a Seoul-based group alleged today.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it couldn’t confirm the claim by the private Commission to Help North Korean Refugees.

About eight or nine defectors were executed last month in public in Chongjin, a city on North Korea’s east coast, and at least 60 others were put to death in other parts of the country, the group said in a statement.

North Korea is seeking to set an “example” for its people by executing dozens of defectors, said Kim Bum-soo, a spokesman for the group. The number of people fleeing North Korea decreased drastically following the executions, he said.

Still, more than 100,000 North Koreans are living in hiding in China, Kim said.

A trickle of defectors from the communist North has swelled into a steady flow in recent years as more attempt to flee hunger and political repression in their homeland.

Nearly 1,900 North Koreans defected to the South last year, an increase of almost 50 % from the year before.

Most of the defectors travel through China, which shares a loosely controlled border with North Korea. Chinese authorities capture some of the North Koreans as illegal migrants and by treaty are obliged to send them back home.

The inter-Korean border remains sealed after the 1950-53 Korean War and guarded by nearly 2 million troops on both sides.