Kamal Ghorui
North Korean citizens, including schoolchildren, are being executed for watching South Korean TV shows such as Squid Game and listening to K-pop, according to new testimony shared with Amnesty International.The testimony comes from 25 in-depth interviews with North Koreans, including 11 who fled the country between 2009 and 2020, reported the Independent. Most of the interviewees were aged between 15 and 25 at the time they left. Escapees described severe and humiliating punishments, including death in the most extreme cases, for consuming foreign media.One interviewee said they heard from an escapee with family links that people, including high school students, had been executed for watching Squid Game in Yanggang Province, near the Chinese border. Another execution for distributing the show was previously documented in North Hamgyong Province in 2021. Amnesty said these reports suggest multiple executions related to the shows.Escapees also described the dangers of listening to foreign music, particularly K-pop, with bands like BTS cited in their testimony. In 2021, a group of teenagers were reportedly investigated for listening to BTS in South Pyongan Province, near the capital Pyongyang.In 2020, North Korea introduced the Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, which outlawed consumption of South Korean content. The law mandates five to 15 years of forced labour for watching or possessing South Korean dramas, music, or films, and prescribes the death penalty for distributing large amounts of content or organizing group viewings.Kim Eunju, 40, described witnessing executions as part of “ideological education.” “When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” she said. “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”Choi Suvin, who fled North Korea in 2019, also recalled a public execution in Sinuiju in 2017 or 2018. “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.” She added that people often sell their homes to avoid punishment. “People are caught for the same act, but punishment depends entirely on money. People without money sell their houses to gather $5,000 or $10,000 to pay to get out of the re-education camps.”
