Three North Koreans were tied to stakes and blasted with ninety bullets each during a gruesome public execution before their bodies were torched in front of onlookers.

The trio were brutally murdered before an audience of terrified locals, including children, in the village of Songjong-ri, for daring to flee to the ?democratic? South.

The condemned men ? two brothers with the surname Kim and their friend Ri, all in their 30s- had spent months planning their escape. On January 6, they pooled their meagre savings to buy a small boat, setting sail in a dense fog, desperate to reach the safety of South Korea.

Mistakenly believing a passing vessel to be a South Korean fishing boat, they cried out for help ? only to be intercepted by a North Korean patrol boat that promptly arrested them.

Eyewitnesses described the chilling process: the men were dragged out, blindfolded and gagged, and then bound so tightly they required six restraints just to keep their weakened bodies in place.

?Usually those who are to be executed are tied to the stake in three places: the neck, the torso, and the legs,? a resident from the northwestern province of North Pyongan, who witnessed the execution while on a trip to South Hwanghae, told Radio Free Asia.

?But this time, they were so weakened by severe torture that they had to be bound in six sections because they could not support their own bodies?.

In a blood-curdling cry, officials bellowed: ?Traitors to the nation must be punished!? as a team of 10 executioners fired nine shots at each man ? three to the head, three to the chest, and three to the legs- totaling an appalling 90 rounds per victim.

Adding insult to injury, the authorities then burned their remains in front of horrified residents.

?They said: ?There is no place to bury the bodies of defectors in in this land!?? the witness recalled, describing how even the youngest onlookers were left in shock, with some collapsing in sheer terror.

A second source told the news site that the public executions are an attempt to instill fear in the residents of what will happen if they try to escape, with some locals collapsing and fainting at the horrific sight.

This brutal episode is a stark reminder of the increasingly severe penalties for would-be escapees in North Korea.

Once relegated to reeducation camps for up to 15 years, defection now carries the death penalty ? executed in public with the intent to instill fear among any who might consider following in their footsteps.

Since the end of the Korean War, more than 34,000 North Koreans have risked everything to seek refuge in South Korea, often fleeing via treacherous routes through China and Southeast Asia.

But as the Kim brothers and their friend tragically discovered, the price of defiance against the regime?s iron-fisted rule can be unimaginably high.

Other notorious execution methods used by the regime range from death by anti-aircraft guns to poisoning.

Back in 2017, defector Hee Yeon Lim reportedly claimed she saw 11 musicians accused of making a pornographic film ?blown to bits? by anti-aircraft guns.

?What I saw that day made me sick in my stomach,? she said.

Hee Yeon said she and her classmates were taken to a stadium at the city?s Military Academy where the hooded victims were tied to the end of anti-aircraft guns in front of 10,000 spectators.

?A gun was fired, the noise was deafening, absolutely terrifying. And the guns were fired one after the other,? she recalled.

?The musicians just disappeared each time the guns were fired into them. Their bodies were blown to bits, totally destroyed, blood and bits flying everywhere? and then, after that, military tanks moved in and they ran over the bits on the ground where the remains lay.?

Also in 2015, reports surfaced from South Korean intelligence that its neighbour had publicly executed its Defence Minister Hyong Yong Chol with an anti-aircraft gun for falling asleep during an event and not carrying out instructions.

Kim Jong-un?s estranged half-brother, Kim Jong-nam was killed in 2017 after the tyrant leader engineered the assassination of the 45-year-old.

In a report by South Korean intelligence analysts at the time, it was claimed Kim wanted the death to be so ?gruesome? it would ?horrify the rest of the world?.

Kim Jong-nam was killed by two women who smeared him with what turned out to be poisonous VX nerve agent in Kuala Lampur International Airport in Malaysia.

Other reports that have emerged from North Korea have told how prison inmates would be given just 20 ounces of corn each while toiling at mines, farms and factories form 13 to 15 hours a day.

Many died of hunger and diseases brought on by malnutrition, a witness said last year, while others managed to catch vermin and insects to eat.

?People eat rats and snakes. They were the best food to recover our health,? said one 46-year-old man, adding he still suffers from ulcers, headaches and back pain.

North Korea has been ruled by one of the world?s longest running dynastic dictatorships since 1948 ? and in October 1993 the North Korean Government told Amnesty International that the death penalty is imposed rarely in ?extremely serious cases?.

But these grisly punishments, meant to serve as a stark warning to the population, have cast a dark shadow over life in North Korea, where fear and brutality remain the norm for anyone daring to dream of freedom. (Daily Mail: Text, Excluding Headline)

?A North Korean defector, left, wears a mask playing the role of North leader Kim Jong Il is ?executed? by his fellows playing firing squad during a rally held against pro-North Korean groups in Seoul, in 2010

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