a total of 5 people, including Lee Hong-choon who was...

a total of 5 people, including Lee Hong-choon who was the chief of Namgang sales office in Chungjin, North Hamgyong Province, North Korea, three trading company presidents, and a head of base, were executed behind closed-doors. Lee Hong-choon made a huge profit by purchasing rice in mass quantities in 2007 to keep in storage and clandestinely released the rice into the market as prices rose. He was executed on the charges of embezzlement because he took all the profit for himself. He also kept about 1,500 MT of corn in storage during March and April 2008 as food prices rose during the famine. The amount of money he earned illegally is about $350,000. Lee was under surveillance as someone whose lifestyle exceeds their income by following the personal lives of people in trading business.