05 March 2008 :

North Korea publicly executed 15 people who attempted to flee to China in a desperate search for food, it emerged today.
The 13 women and two men were killed by firing squad while on a bridge near the Chinese and Russian borders in a bid to stem flow of refugees, it was claimed.
The group of 15 were said to have been seized in the north-eastern town of Onseong and accused of crossing the Tumen River into neighbouring China or helping others to cross.
They were executed on February 20, according to the Good Friends private aid organisation.
A growing number of North Koreans cross into China in search of food and to avoid political oppression.
The execution "has further stirred the public (unrest) ... and made people upset at a time when all people were worried as there were nothing to eat," the group quoted an unnamed woman in the town as saying.