People in North Korea are being publicly executed for watching South Korean shows like Squid Game and listening to K-pop, it’s been revealed.
Even schoolchildren are facing brutal punishment for watching and listening to popular media from their southern neighbour, Amnesty International discovered.
Those who were able to escape Kim Jong-Un’s regime said young children are being forced to watch public executions of those their own age for the ‘crimes’ as a warning not to consume foreign media.
Poorer people face the most severe punishments, but those with connections and from wealthier families are often able to bribe officials to avoid the death sentence.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director, said the testimonies from residents who escaped show the severity of the country’s ‘dystopian’ laws.
‘Watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life – unless you can afford to pay,’ she said.
‘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.’
Brooks said the governments fear of information has placed North Koreans into an ‘ideological cage’.
Even with strong laws, South Korean content is still reaching North Korea – including popular dramas such as Crash Landing on You, which is set in the dictatorship.
Those who listen to bands like BTS or watch popular shows like Squid Game have been executed, interviewees told Amnesty.
In 2021, a student who smuggled copies of Squid Game into the country from China was sentenced to death by firing squad.
He was caught after selling copies to several people including fellow students, according to sources in the country cited by Radio Free Asia (RFA).
One person who purchased the copy received a life sentence, while his friends who watched it were given five years hard labour, RFA reported.
Sources said Squid Game’s dystopian world, in which indebted people are pitted against each other in children’s games with deadly stakes, clearly resonates with North Koreans living under dictatorship.
North Korea’s ‘Law on the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture’ came into effect in 2020, aimed at cracking down on the influx of western materials such as movies, books and music, but it particularly focuses on South Korean media.
