Where Totalitarianism Takes You.. are we on the way?

Mar 4, 2010

A North Korean factory worker was publicly executed by firing squad for speaking to a friend in the South on an illegal mobile phone.

The armaments factory worker was accused of divulging the price of rice and other information on living conditions to the friend who defected to South Korea years ago.

The man, identified only by his surname Chong, made calls to the defector using an illegal Chinese mobile phone, North Korean state media said.

The execution took place in late January in the eastern coastal city of Hamhung.

Mobile phone use in authoritarian North Korea is tightly restricted, although the country introduced an advanced network in 2008.

North Koreans who manage to make illegal overseas mobile calls mostly use networks in neighbouring China.

More than 10,000 North Koreans living near the border with China are thought to own Chinese mobiles.

The North Korean defector said to have received the calls, only identified by the common Korean family name of Kim, may have worked for South Korean government officials.

North Korea has long been regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records, including public executions, political prison camps and torture.

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