North Korea reportedly executes 30 officials in purge over flood response

North Korea reportedly executed 30 officials last month for their alleged failure to mitigate the devastation caused by floods and landslides that killed over 4,000 people.

The officials were charged with corruption and dereliction of duty, South Korean outlet TV Chosun reported.

The catastrophic flooding hit the Chagang province in July and also displaced more than 15,000 people.

According to North Korean news reports, the flooding caused widespread destruction in the northwestern city of Sinuiju and neighbouring Uiju, with over 4,100 homes, 7,410 acres of farmland, and many roads, buildings and railway lines affected.

The country’s leader Kim Jong-un ordered authorities to "strictly punish" the officials responsible, the North Korean Central News Agency reported.

An unnamed official in the Kim regime told TV Chosun that 20 to 30 cadres in the flood-stricken area were executed late last month. The report could not be independently verified.

After the floods struck, Mr Kim declared that North Korea would not take any international aid, Associated Press reported.

Instead, he asked officials to relocate thousands of displaced residents to the capital city of Pyongyang, where they would receive better care and support. The rebuilding efforts were expected to take around two to three months, during which time the government planned to provide for nearly 15,400 vulnerable people in facilities within Pyongyang.

Mr Kim also dismissed a senior official, Kang Bong-hoon, from his position as Chagang province provincial party committee Secretary, TV Chosun claimed.

In 2019, Chosun reported that Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s nuclear envoy to America, had been executed for his inability to secure a summit between Mr Kim and then president Donald Trump.

It was later revealed that Kim Hyok Chol was alive and well, CNN noted.

North Korea has a history of public executions, with an average of 10 taking place annually before the Covid pandemic, according to the Korea Times, a South Korean media outlet. The number has since increased to an estimated 100 or more, the outlet claimed.

"North Korea’s unstable economy, international sanctions, and the impact of natural disasters have likely contributed,” Yang Moo-jin, president of University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said.

Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Reunification Strategy Studies department at the Sejong Institute, told Korea Times: “North Korea public executions occur relatively frequently. The executions cover a wide range of cases, including heinous crimes, drug smuggling, and, in rare instances, individuals caught producing and selling prohibited content, including South Korean dramas."

The 2023 North Korean Human Rights Report, compiled from testimonies of 508 defectors, claims a pattern of severe human rights abuses and brutal living conditions endured by citizens.

The report notes that executions are often carried out in public, with residents forced to attend. This practice is designed to intimidate and control the population, experts said.

"The North Korean regime uses public executions as a tool to maintain control and instil fear in its citizens," said Julie Turner, US special envoy for North Korean human rights. "The international community must work together to expose these violations and bring about change."

"In the global community, it is imperative that we unite our efforts to expose the regime’s grievous transgressions and institute tangible changes to enhance the lives of the North Korean people," she said in October 2023, underlining that the human rights situation in the country remains "amongst the worst in the world”.