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North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series “Squid Game” and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers announced in early February.
Amnesty International cited testimony from an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed for specifically watching the popular survival drama series.
It also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.
“Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.
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A leaflet containing a U.S. dollar bill beneath USB drives loaded with K-pop music is seen during an interview with North Korean defector Park Sang-hak in Seoul, South Korea, on June 25, 2024. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
“I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections,” he told Amnesty International in an interview.
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Joonsik said three of his sisters’ high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families’ inability to pay bribes.
“The authorities criminalize 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,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director.
Members of the North Korean Military Choir sing a Russian song during a concert following Russian–North Korean talks in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 19, 2024. (Contributor/Getty Images)
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“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,” she added. “People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.”
Fans of Korean pop music attend the KCON convention in Newark, New Jersey, on June 23, 2018. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
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Several defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.
“When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” said Kim Eunju, 40. “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”