North Korea reportedly executes two women who were helping others escape the hermit kingdom

Women were convicted on charges of human trafficking

North Korea has executed two women who were helping fellow citizens to defect from the country after they were captured and repatriated by China, according to a report.

The women, aged 39 and 43, were executed on 31 August following a public trial in the northeastern city of Chongjin for helping fellow citizens to escape to South Korea from China, the US government-funded Radio Free Asia claimed.

Nine other women were sentenced to life in prison on similar charges of human trafficking the same day, Jang Se-yul, head of rights group Gyeore’eol Unification Solidarity, told the outlet.

“These two women were executed because they had sent North Korean escapees from China to their enemy country, South Korea," Mr Jang said.

He said the two women had been sold to an adult entertainment business upon their arrival in China.

“When other North Korean women working there said they wanted to go to South Korea, they made arrangements to send them there," Mr Jang said.

The number of North Koreans fleeing the country increased following a devastating famine in the 1990s.

They were mostly women from the poorer northern regions which share a long and porous border with China.

In recent years, according to Seoul's unification ministry, more people from the elite sections of society have been fleeing to South Korea.

A defector from the North is given citizenship, almost-free housing, resettlement money and other benefits upon arrival in the South.

The 11 women convicted last month were among 500 North Koreans sent back by China in October 2023.

China has never recognised fleeing North Koreans as defectors and instead calls them "economic migrants".

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson last year said there were no "so-called defectors" in China and the government would continue to “appropriately handle” the matter according to humanitarian principles and domestic and international law.

The repatriated North Koreans were taken into the country in vehicle convoys through five separate border crossings, according to the Human Rights Watch.

South Korea's government and rights organisations have said defectors who are deported back to the North face harsh punishment, including detention in labour camps where they are subject to dangerous treatment and conditions.

The North has rejected allegations of human rights violations, calling them part of a conspiracy to overthrow the leadership.

In the past, North Korea has held executions in villages and prison camps where crowds could gather, according to right groups outside the country. But it had avoided executions in heavily populated areas where it would be harder to keep track of those attending.

Radio Free Asia claimed that a resident of Chongjin told it the public trial of the two women started at 11am in a marketplace and lasted an hour with hundreds of residents and merchants in attendance.

It ended with the Hamgyong province’s officials executing the two women on the same day.

Mr Jang claimed one of the victim’s younger sisters told him that she had escaped to South Korea with her help.

“She cried a lot,” Mr Jang claimed. “It seems like her sister had rescued a lot of North Korean escapees and sent them to South Korea.”