Eighty people have been executed by firing squad in North Korea for watching foreign films, according to a newspaper report.

South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the co-ordinated public executions took place in seven separate cities earlier this month. In one case, the local authorities rounded up 10,000 people, including children, and forced them to watch, it reported.

Security concerns: Kim Jong-un, visiting a cemetery of fallen fighters, may be signalling a broader crackdown. Credit:AFP/KCNA via KNS

Those put to death were found guilty by the state of minor misdemeanours, including watching videos of South Korean television programs or possessing a Bible.

Sources told the paper that witnesses saw eight people tied to stakes in the Shinpoong Stadium, in Kangwon Province, before having sacks placed over their heads and being executed by soldiers firing machine guns. ''I heard from the residents that they watched in terror as the corpses were so riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards,'' a source said.