North Korea Public Execution (w/English Narration)

The blurry film - apparently from a hidden camera - appeared to show one man being shot in Yuson town near the border with China on March 2, 2005. The condemned faced the firing squad shortly after a brief trial in which a judge found him guilty of trying to cross into China and smuggle others there.

Three gunmen each fired one shot at the prisoner who was tied to a pole.

Another female defendent was sentenced to10 years of labor camp.

The video was carried out of North Korea by several defectors. It was filmed by unnamed residents of the Stalinist state.

It decided to publicize the tape after determining witness accounts of the executions matched the images captured on film, the statement said.

A Seoul-based group called the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees said last month that North Korea had executed 70 defectors who were captured in China and sent home to discourage its citizens from fleeing the country.

The number of people fleeing North Korea decreased drastically following the executions, the group said.

A trickle of defectors from the communist North has swelled into a steady flow in recent years as more attempt to flee hunger and political repression in their homeland. Nearly 1,900 North Koreans defected to the South last year, an increase of almost 50 percent from the year before.

More than 100,000 North Koreans are living or hiding in China, the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees has estimated.