North Korean man executed for calling a friend in South Korea on mobile phone



A North Korean man has been executed by firing squad for calling a friend in South Korea on his mobile phone.

The brutal communist regime, which is technically at war with South Korea, has warned its 24 million population that any contact with the nation south of its borders is a crime punishable by life in prison or death.

News of those who have been caught and punished for making contact with the south rarely leaks out - because anyone disclosing information about punishment also risks imprisonment.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (C) visits the newly-built Kumjinggang Guchang Juvenile power plant. The country bans citizens from contacting the south

But a radio station in Seoul, South Korea, said it had learned that a man identified only as Jung has been executed after security officials raided his home and found a Chinese-manufactured mobile phone.

He was taken away and subjected to extreme torture, when he confessed that he had told a defector friend in South Korea about the harsh living conditions in the communist state.

He revealed that he had given his friend details of how people were struggling to live and had also passed on information about the price of rice.

The friend had defected to South Korea in 2001, according to the Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea, which has found a way of allowing individuals and private groups to broadcast to North Koreans through shortwave radio.

The station said Jung was a munitions worker living in the north east port of Hamhung.

Defected: Jung had rung a friend in South Korea on the mobile phone, which is illegal in the communist state, according to Open Radio for North Korea in Seoul

He is believed to be the first person to be shot since the capital, Pyongyang, tightened a crackdown on illegal mobile phones last month.

North Korea does allow mobile phones to be used, but they have to be registered and their range is limited to Pyongyang.

However Chinese mobile phones with pre-paid cards that make international calls possible have been distributed through the black market.

It is the owners of these phones who have been targeted by the country's secret police.

The execution of Jung is expected to be deliberately leaked by the regime as a warning to others who own similar phones.