gross disrespect to late Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il by drinking alcohol
during the 100-day mourning period.
Kim Chol, the secretive State's vice minister of the Army, was dragged
before a firing squad and gunned down in January – a month after Kim
died of an apparent heart attack.
The North Korean regime issued strict instructions to the 25 million
population to express their sorrow at their leader's passing by
abstaining from pleasurable activities – which
included drinking alcohol or having sex.
As an initial crack down on pleasure, anyone found to be not showing
extreme distress in the hours after the dictator's death were dealt
with severely by being sent to six months in labour camps, according
to reports leaking from the Stalinist nation.
It was claimed that anyone who failed to turn up at organised mourning
events within two days of the burial service were sent to a labour
camp and punishment was also meted out to anyone who even made a
mobile phone call out of the country.
But when the mourning period to mark Kim's burial was over and the
strict 'no pleasure' 100 days followed, anyone who raised a glass of
alcohol was in danger of receiving a death sentence.
According to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper, Kim Chol was one of
those who failed to resist the chance of having a drink.