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Sydney Woman Accused of Possessing Slaves
North Korea Executes Two Fortune Tellers Amid Crackdown on ‘Anti-Socialist Behavior’Rungnapha Kanbut, 57, is on trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to six charges including intentionally possessing a slave and dealing with the proceeds of crime. Prosecutor Peter Neil SC in his opening address on April 9, said both of the women had been sex workers in Asia when they agreed—in 2004 and 2005—to travel to Australia for sex work.
The prosecutor said the jury would hear that when they arrived in Sydney they were taken to live with Kanbut, who told them they each had a $45,000 debt to pay off. Neil said the first woman, who arrived in 2004 on a visitor visa and couldn’t speak English, was told to give Kanbut her passport for safe keeping. She was also told she’d be given four days off a month but that didn’t happen and she worked long days in brothels across Sydney.
“At times when (the woman) had her period she was still required to work and, to conceal her menstruation from clients, she placed a sponge in her vagina,” the prosecutor said. He said she was left in no doubt that she had to pay off her debt before she had money for herself—with the exception of tips.
Neil told the jury that in Australia the concept of slavery was “not the same as what many people in our community may consider slavery to be.” He said the offence relevant to Kanbut’s charges was fundamentally concerned with “the power of control” she exercised while each woman was paying off her $45,000 debt.
The executions of the two women took place in March in North Hamgyong’s Chongjin city, and were aimed at forcing officials to stop patronizing fortune tellers and engaging in other "superstitious" behavior, according to two sources who spoke to RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity. The public executions “shocked” city residents, RFA’s source said.
“They pronounced sentences of death and carried out public executions immediately,” the source said, adding that two of the three women put on trial were executed by shooting, with the third sentenced to life in prison. “Tens of thousands of people from factories, colleges, and housing units from Chongjin were forced to attend the public trail in March,” added the source.
The three had created a group called Chilsungjo (Seven Star Group) to carry out what authorities described as “superstitious activities,” the source said. “They had used a three-year-old and five-year-old child to carry out their activities, claiming that the children were possessed by a spirit oracle and receiving money for telling fortunes,” he said.
It is now common in North Korea for people to consult fortune tellers before planning weddings or making business deals, or considering other important decisions in their lives, the source said, adding, “Even high-ranking government officials and the families of judicial authorities often visit fortune tellers.”
“The Central Committee has emphasized the elimination of anti-socialist behavior and the preservation of social order, but it is hard to find residents who will follow these orders,” the source said. “People fear that they will starve to death if they live by the law, so it is no exaggeration to say that illegal activities have now become common.”
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