this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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What are you referring to, specifically? Often times western media reports on outlandish stories like the famous "120 dogs" execution ended up to have been a fabrication originating in a Chinese satirical column, reported entirely seriously and later walked back by some news outlets.
https://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/dvd/
Looks to be a single execution in front of a firing squad, in a millitary setting, which isn't the same as the public executions on live TV or in public spaces you made it out to be. The one executed was stated to have been guilty of treason, which is something punishable by death in most countries. We have no other context, and the video has several jump cuts. Further still, it's from 2 decades ago, when the DPRK was still recovering from the Arduous March, a combination of adverse weather conditions and the dissolution of the USSR resulting in mass famine.
This doesn't provide any indication that the accused aren't guilty, nor that public executions are a common practice (especially if we consider public executions to be televised or in public spaces), nor that this practice continues today now that their economy is doing better, nor that executions are widespread.
Cowbee: "Haha! What executions? All of it is completely made up and originates from things like satire! Things are wonderful in North Korea and anyone thinking otherwise has just been deceived."
Also Cowbee: "Look, this execution was actually not a problem because of many reasons. Besides, DPRK was just going through a rough time, and the guy probably deserved it or something. Anyways, stop trying to judge a country based on its past actions!"
They implied that the DPRK was executing people willy-nilly and for no reason in the middle of public spaces. They provided evidence of a millitary execution by firing squad with no other context. Do you have more context, more evidence, or is your only response to me taking them seriously to make a mockery of yourself and strawman me?
I literally only said "public executions". I said nothing about live tv or specific locations, you dork
"Public" implies out in the open, not on a millitary site. Pretty much every country has done this, even if they deny it. I'm for abolishing the death penalty, but this isn't something that appears to be as widespread of an issue or as severe as your comment implied it was.