Children were reportedly forced to watch the public executions
North Korea is executing teenagers and sending people to labour camps for consuming media from South Korea, according to Amnesty International, who conducted in-depth interviews with 11 individuals who fled North Korea between 2019 and 2020.
The human rights organisations says testimonies of those who escaped say that consuming popular K-dramas such as Netflix’s Squid Game, Crash Landing on You, or Descendants of the Sun, and listening to K-pop have led to the most extreme punishments, including death.
Escapees from North Korea say that children are forced to watch executions as a warning against consuming foreign media.
Those without money or connections face the worst punishments, while those from wealthier families can bribe officials and sometimes escape punishment.
Interviewees say that South Korean media is making its way into North Korea more quickly than it used to, with the media often being smuggled in via China.
There have been multiple reports of executions in relation to people watching Squid Game.
Radio Free Asia reported an execution in the North Hamgyong Province in 2021 for distributing the show, while another interviewee said they heard from an escapee who had family connections in the Yanggang Province that there had been executions of teenagers in relation to the show.
Other interviewees say authorities target pop music, including K-pop songs by boy band BTS.
North Koreans who escaped the country from the years 2012 and 2020 told Amnesty International that people know the risks of watching South Korean TV, but that it remains common.
Choi Suvin, 39, who left the country in 2019, explained that punishment for consuming foreign media’ depends entirely on money’.
“People without money sell their houses to gather 5,000 or 10,000 USD to pay to get out of the re-education camps.”
She recalled having to watch a public execution in Sinuiju in 2017 or 2018 of someone accused of distributing foreign media.
“Authorities told everyone to go, and tens of thousands of people from Sinuiju city gathered to watch,” she said. “They execute people to brainwash and educate us.”
Kim Joonsik, who left North Korea in 2019, said he avoided punishment due to his family’s connections, despite being caught watching foreign shows three times.
“Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” he said. “I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections.”
However, he explained that three of his sisters’ high school friends received sentences of years in labour camps for similar crimes, as they could not afford bribes.
Another interviewee explained how widespread consuming foreign media is: “Workers watch it openly, party officials watch it proudly, security agents watch it secretly, and police watch it safely. Everyone knows everyone watches, including those who do the crackdowns.”
North Korea is one of the most restrictive information environments in the world.
The 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act identifies South Korean content as “rotten ideology that paralyzes the people’s revolutionary sense”, and can lead to sentences of five to 15 years of forced labour for watching or possessing South Korean dramas, films or music.
Distributing “large amounts” of content or organising group showings can lead to the death penalty.
The Deputy Regional Director of Amnesty International, Sarah Brooks, said: “These testimonies show how North Korea is enforcing dystopian laws that mean watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life – unless you can afford to pay
“The authorities criminalise access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections.
“This government’s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings. People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.
“This completely arbitrary system, built on fear and corruption, violates fundamental principles of justice and internationally recognised human rights. It must be dismantled.”
