The reality of the death penalty system in North Korea was highlighted for the first time at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty, a global conference discussing the abolition of capital punishment, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a North Korean human rights documentation organization, announced today (July 3).

According to the organization, on the first day of the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Paris, France, for three days starting June 30, Kim Eun-ju, a North Korean defector and human rights activist who authored the memoir "The Eleven-Year-Old's Will," testified about the death penalty system she experienced in North Korea.

Kim shared her experience of witnessing a public execution for the first time at the age of nine and explained the psychological trauma left on those who witness executions and the families of the condemned.

After hearing Kim's testimony, Elizabeth Salmón, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, emphasized that "no one should be forced to watch an execution."

TJWG explained that the reality of North Korea's death penalty system was highlighted multiple times throughout the conference through roundtables and NGO seminars.

TJWG stated, "This is the first time that North Korea has been highlighted at this international conference as one of the problematic countries that frequently uses the death penalty as a means of rule by fear."

The World Congress Against the Death Penalty has been held every three years since 2001 by the France-based anti-death penalty organization Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM).

This year's conference was sponsored by the French government, the European Union (EU), and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

French President Emmanuel Macron also appeared as a speaker at the conference to express his support for the movement to abolish the death penalty.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)