Korean execution site )courtesy telegraph.co.uk)

“There have been reports of executions with anti-aircraft guns in the past – as well as mortars being used to eliminate the enemies of the Kim dynasty that rules North Korea – but the images are the first hard evidence to emerge,” telegraph.co.uk reports. “South Korean intelligence sources stated that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, had already ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year. The officials were found guilty of questioning the supreme leader’s authority and included a vice-cabinet minister who questioned Mr Kim’s policies on forestation.”

76 COMMENTS

    • It’s also arguably more humane than the lethal injection. It’s instant and unambiguous as to whether pain was suffered or not. Not that the death penalty is humane to begin with, but if you’re going to kill someone, you might as well do it well.

        • Unless, of course, they execute the wrong person, and then we have two victims instead of just one. Oops.

        • So let’s ban guns because some people use them to kill innocents. Same concept.

          The cases of wrongful execution are few and far between.

        • I hope you’re not serious. The banning of civilian ownership of firearms would violate civil rights and have negative consequences for all of society. The abolishing of the death penalty would do none of these things. That there are few cases of wrongful execution doesn’t excuse the fact that they are all entirely preventable.

        • So let’s ban guns because some people use them to kill innocents. Same concept.

          The cases of wrongful execution are few and far between.

          It saddens me that you don’t understand the difference between a state execution and the people’s right to keep and bear arms. Check out the Innocence Project and you see that it’s a little more than “few and far between”.

          To Stan; As for inhumanity towards convicted criminals; well, we do still supposedly have the 8th Amendment, unless you’ve forgotten about that.

        • Why can’t you guys understand satire? Also, I support the death penalty and think it should be used more often. There is no point in locking someone in prison for life, and murder should warrant death no matter what.

        • Anonymoose, et al.

          The argument against the death penalty has nothing to do with consideration of “cruel and unusual”. It has nothing to do with the victims and retributi- err, reveng- err, “justice”.

          It has to do with, you think the government’s incompetent and makes mistakes right?

          You really want to give them the right to kill someone- i.e., irreversible if an error occurs- knowing how much government screws things up?

          On what world can you criticize government inefficiency, server crashes, et. al when you give them the executioner’s sword? Either you think that they magically get criminal cases right (look at our incarceration rates vs. everywhere in the world) or you just don’t give a damn about innocent people being executed.

          Which is it?

        • The death penalty is not cruel or unusual. The founding fathers were very OK with hanging, Washington himself hung continental soldiers as an example of others. If you want to argue against the death penalty that’s fine, but please don’t pervert the constitution the same way the antis do.

        • If you want to alter the current situation, leave it up to the next of kin of the victim(s). Hell, you can leave the execution up to them as well, if you like. Someone kills one of mine, just turn your back for a minute (ie, grant me immunity) and I’ll take care of it in the next 10 seconds.

        • To Grindstone, there is that pesky word AND which liberals want to repurpose to mean OR.
          No executions of innocents happen by accident. They happen when bad cops and bad prosecutors get away with murder.

        • Actually, successful court arguments against the death penalty have been made precisely on the cruel and unusual basis.

          Cruel is pretty obvious, but unusual doesn’t simply mean odd or not common, in an overal general sense. It means unusual in the context of a specific case, as in, is the death penalty usually applied to all defendants in comparable circumstances. It is the supposed unevenness of application that constitutes the unusualness, and therefore unconstitutionality, of the death penalty.

          I don’t buy that argument, myself, because the it relies on mere correlation (disproportionate percentage of minorities receiving the death penalty) to establish causation, which I reject. Nevertheless, the argument is out there and it has some traction.

      • The humane-ness of this type of execution has nothing to do with it. This is an execution calculated to horrify the spectators, who undoubtedly are forced to attend to instill fear in them. A battery of quad-25mm machineguns would leave little else but human hamburger behind.

    • “You have to hand it to Kim, he gets it done in style.”

      Oh, yeah.

      Here’s another good one, ‘Death by Mortar’:

      “On the orders of Kim Jong-un to leave “no trace of him behind, down to his hair,” according to South Korean media, Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and “obliterated.” ”

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9630509/North-Korean-army-minister-executed-with-mortar-round.html

  1. Psychotic little weasel. Oh well. the more North Koreans he kills, the less we will have to deal with some day.

      • Correct, meaning the country, its international relations, and its economy will be totally in the control of a psychotic moron. I can see no downside, except for our own nutcakes, who will ship thousands of tons of food to bail them out when mass starvation occurs. That would be China’s job, stay out of it. Wanna bet?

    • Really, what are they gonna use for weapons? Throw rocks and shoes? The people have no firearms, hence no change.

      • Really? How many times has TTAG covered illicit guns found in supposed gun-free utopias? Come on, now. You should know better than that.

        • True, but most of those “gun-free utopias” are not absolute tyrannies with a psychotic police state apparatus monitoring every citizen’s activities and exercising a level of control over the populace that most prisons can’t achieve…

          North Korea may have the most disarmed civilian population in the world, and it’s a perfect example of what the end game is when the citizenry has no means to resist the violence of the state.

  2. I’d think an improvement over their use of a pack of starving (East) German Shepherds to execute doubters.

  3. Damn, that’s one way to get it done. Guess AA shells are cheaper than pistol rounds In NK.

      • Yep. North Korea is the future for any unrestrained government. Most of our “leaders” anymore move the ball closer towards tyrannical ends. Some more than others. I wonder if there is really any candidate who could and would reverse course.

  4. North Korea has always been a stark, abject demonstration of the direct relationship between the lack of gun ownership, and therefore power, of its people, in relationship to the police and military apparatus of its government. Very sad.

    Tom

  5. At least he didn’t feed them to hungry dogs this time.

    The dogs are special. He saves them for family.

  6. Lest we get too high and mighty here…just kiddin, sorta; the Brits tied Sepoy mutineers to the mouths of cannons and blew them to Kingdom Come.

    But that Kim guy is a real character, alright. One wonders with what trepidation junior officers wait in the wings for their “promotions.”

    • I imagine they know what the future holds, but the desire to have your family fed is strong.

  7. Oh, well, there it is. Obvious to the most casual observer.

    ‘Course, I ain’t sayin’ it ain’t. But if they say so, …

    I mean, they’re “casting distinct shadows … what appear to be people”

  8. Now THAT’S how ya encourage open and honest policy dialogue in an organization, right?

  9. Kim saw Rambo 4 and got into an argument with someone about if the special effects were realistic.

    This is his version of mythbusters.

    • Yes they do. NK has probably the highest number of active AA sites in the world. There are a couple Google Earth KMZ files out there that mark all of them on the map for you.

      I know a merchant marine who sailed into NK waters during relief efforts in the 90s. One of the things he mentioned when I asked about NK was how many AA sites you could spot even on the coast line.

      • Kinda makes sense, the country they consider enemy #1 is known for attacking from the air.

        • Also for sending food during the relief efforts of the ’90s. We absolutely have to quit that, as Reagan did to USSR, “you’re on your own!”

  10. Well, you can bet he doesn’t need to have a doctor put a stethoscope up to their chest!

    All jokes aside, that guy needs to be executed. It seems obvious he’s a nut.

  11. “Blowing from guns” is a time-tested execution method in Asia and has been for 500 years. It usually required the condemned to be tied in front of the muzzle of a cannon, which was loaded with a blank or shot, but not shell. I’m sure that the condemned would be terrorized, but the end would be quick. And messy.

    • The guy is a megalomaniac; it was probably just their facial expressions, or they caught him on a bad day, or didn’t express enough enthusiasm about his genius, etc., etc. Stalin was like that, too. Last person to stop clapping after one of his 3-hour tirades would disappear into the cellars of the Lubyanka, bullet to the back of the neck or head.

        • I’m thinkin’ he eats more Whoppers than kimchi. Note also that he appears to be the fattest little mofo in the entire country; his own troops look like friggin’ whippets.

  12. Total waste of ammunition and firepower. He is a meglomaniac and an idiot, just like his father was. Hopefully, one day soon someone will take him out and somehow let the poor people under his thumb have real freedom.

    • Remember the culture of the past 50 years. The guy who takes him out will be planning to be his replacement. No improvement. And WE need to stay out of it.

  13. One of the things the governments of the world might get out of not stopping North Korea is that it is a real life test of how successfully a government can control a people over generations. The real data comes in when the last people who can remember a time before the nightmare have been dead and forgotten for at least one generation. Give that some thought.

  14. North Korea is one of the few countries without benefit of a private central bank. Which makes any and all news reports highly suspect.

  15. Colin Powell presented similar slides with respect to wmd’s in Iraq.

    I call “bullshit!” and I’m right.

  16. Don’t they know about new 9mm technology? Could have saved themselves a bundle on ammo costs.

  17. There’s a special place in hell reserved for this man. Makes you appreciate the American revolutionaries and true freedom.

  18. It’s almost like the phrase “Oriental despotism” has some basis in fact! In the West you’re a “fascist” for not letting trannies marry their grandmothers. In the East you really have to be a Kim, Mao, or Pol Pot to get noticed. Maybe general Westmoreland was on to something about their “…low regard for life” remark?

  19. Tie the arms to one hich an the legs to another.
    Kinda like the old way with horses.
    They slowly go in opposite directions. An cheaper than AA & 9mm bullets.
    But here in my neck of the woods its difficult to get the ammo you want, an need. So I would think the reused hanging rope would come in handy. Maybe make it like a snare with wire to make it last. Kimy has Flare, an a iron hand. So where do they get resupply? Whats there known gold holdings? Where do they obtain there gas, technology, training, an ammo? There military imo isn’t “big”, but they have jets, tanks, an other stuff….kim girly UN is, odd in the way he took out experience, took over daddy’s country, an watches Bball an associates with the dress wearing Rod. He has a screw loose…

    • “There military imo isn’t “big”, but they have jets, tanks, an other stuff.”

      They have the world’s 4th largest active duty military. If you counted reserves and paramilitaries (national guards, etc), they would have the largest.

  20. So you believe in Capital Punishment huh. You think all women should be hung like men.

  21. Am I the only guy who is thinking about the SOL privates who have to take the prisoner out into the impact area.

    There is a reason Impact Area is marked Red on a topo…

  22. For those states that have been twiddling with the dilemma of an effective, humane, lethal drug injection, the idea of a lethal injection of about ten or twenty pounds of lead would be much quicker, effective, and more human.

    Not to mention more dramatic.

    If that would not help serve as a crime deterrent, I don’t know what would.

  23. Apparently just dead wasn’t good enough, he wanted them all to be extra special positively certified dead with some extra dead on top. Somebody needs to put this twit underground along with the #2 and #3 guys. And then explain to #4 how he got to be #1 and why and that it is in his best interest to change the country’s policies.

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