A North Korean fisherman was publicly executed for listening to foreign radio stations at sea, Radio Free Asia report says

• A North Korean fishing-boat captain is reported to have been publicly executed for listening to banned foreign radio stations while at sea.
• The man, known by his surname, Choi, and said to have been in his 40s, was killed by firing squad in front of 100 boat captains and fisheries executives, a Radio Free Asia report said, citing sources in the country.
• Choi, who owned a fleet of more than 50 ships, is thought to have been turned in by one of his crew members after he became unpopular with them. He confessed to authorities and was charged with “subversion against the party,” the report said.
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A North Korean fishing-boat captain has been publicly executed for listening to banned foreign radio stations while at sea.

The man, only known by his surname Choi and said to have been in his 40s, was killed by firing squad in front of 100 boat captains and fisheries executives, a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report revealed.

Choi had been reeling in fish after Kim Jong Un ordered the country’s fisherman to increase their hauls amid food shortages and to raise cash following international sanctions aimed at curbing resources for nuclear weapons, according to the New York Post.

North Korea has very strict rules around what its citizens can and can’t do including banning most foreign radio stations. However, many people have been able to pick up international broadcasts while out in the water off the country’s coast, LadBible reported.

Choi, who owned a fleet of over 50 ships, is thought to have been turned in by one of his crew members after he became unpopular with them. He ultimately confessed to authorities and was charged with ‘subversion against the party,’ according to the RFA report. 

It added that the fishing boat captain had began the habit of tuning into foreign radio stations while serving as a radio operator in the military and has listened to the station for the past 15 years.

A source told RFA: "The security authorities decided then that the time to re-educate him had long past, so they executed him by firing squad. Therefore, it seems that the authorities made an example out of Choi to imprint on the residents that listening to outside radio stations means death."

RFA broadcasts Korean-language programming for six hours daily in North Korea via transmitters in South Korea and 1,900 miles away in the US-controlled Northern Mariana Islands, the Post added.

Its website states that it is funded by an annual grant from the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent federal agency that oversees media networks providing unbiased news and information in countries with limited press freedom. 

A subsequent crackdown of the fishing base at the port city of Chongjin also led to the dismissal of party and security officers despite its affiliation with 'Bureau 39,' a government wing which obtains foreign currency for the country's leaders, LadBible added. 

Another source told RFA that Choi appeared to be "under the illusion that because he was part of Bureau 39's fishing base, he would be immune to criminal charged." 

In June, a signal corpsman was sent to a North Korean political prison camp for listening to RFA while in 2018, a separate signaler from the country's elite Supreme Guard Command and the entire command was punished, according to the Daily Mail.