A Sourth Korean man looks at a caricature depicting a public execution in North Korea, during a rally against North Korea's human rights policy in Seoul, South Korea. Photo by JEON HEON-KYUN / EPA
July 3 (Asia Today) -- A North Korean escapee told an international conference in France that she first witnessed a public execution at age 9 and that people forced to watch such killings often suffer lasting psychological trauma.
Eunju Kim, a North Korean human rights activist and co-author of the memoir "A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea," testified at the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris.
The three-day congress, held from Tuesday through Thursday, brought together death penalty abolitionists, policymakers and human rights advocates from around the world. The event was organized by the French nonprofit Together Against the Death Penalty with support from France, the European Union and Switzerland.
The Transitional Justice Working Group, a Seoul-based organization that documents North Korean human rights abuses, said it was the first time North Korea's use of public executions had been addressed at the congress.
