Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed...

Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed for stealing food and others have died of malnutrition in labour camps, Amnesty International said in a report. The human rights group urged the North Korean government to 'ensure that food shortages are not used as a tool to persecute perceived political opponents.' The report - released in Bombay at the World Social Forum, records the chilling testimonies of North Korean refugees interviewed in South Korea and Japan and interviews with international aid groups during 2002 and 2003. Entitled "Starved of Rights: Human Rights and the Food Crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea", the report accuses the Pyongyang government of distributing food unfairly, favouring those who are economically active and politically loyal. "Public notices advertised the executions and school children were forced to watch the shootings or hangings," Amnesty International researcher Rajiv Narayan said he said. Public executions were at their highest from 1996 to 1998, when famine gripped North Korea, the report said.