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In early February, human rights researchers reported that North Korean officials executed teenagers accused of watching the South Korean television series “Squid Game” and listening to K-pop music.
Amnesty International shared insights from a defector with relatives in Yanggang Province, revealing that individuals, including students, faced execution for engaging with the widely acclaimed survival drama.
Additionally, the organization reported instances where consuming South Korean media led to forced labor sentences and public shaming, especially for those lacking financial resources or political influence.
“Typically, when high school students are caught, families with financial means manage to receive only a warning,” explained Kim Joonsik, 28, who experienced being caught watching South Korean dramas three times before fleeing the country in 2019.
During an interview in Seoul, South Korea, on June 25, 2024, North Korean defector Park Sang-hak displayed a leaflet featuring a U.S. dollar bill alongside USB drives filled with K-pop music. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
“I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections,” he told Amnesty International in an interview.
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)
“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)
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.”