Thirty officials of the North Korean regime who were involved in talks with South Korea have been executed or died in "staged traffic accidents," according to a human rights report.| This isn't the Nork version of 'Operation Lemony Snickett', but the outcome is much the same... |
Of those 200, Amnesty said, some were apparently executed and the remainder were sent to political prison camps. The 30 men executed for failing to improve Pyongyang's ties with Seoul are considered scapegoats for the new low point in inter-Korean ties. Their task would have been made immeasurably more difficult given North Korea's insistence with pushing ahead with its development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
North Korea has a habit of executing bureaucrats who are perceived to have failed the regime, even though they are often merely carrying out the orders of higher-ranking officials or members of the ruling family. In 2010, Pak Nam-gi, the former head of the finance department of the Workers' Party, was reportedly executed by firing squad for the catastrophic attempt to reform the impoverished nation's currency. The result was rampant inflation and food shortages became even more acute.