Rare footage obtained by BBC Korean shows North Korea publicly sentencing two teenagers to 12 years of hard labor for watching K-dramas.
The footage, which appears to have been taken in 2022, shows two 16-year-old boys in handcuffs in front of hundreds of schoolchildren in an outdoor stadium. Uniforms chide the boys for not “reflecting deeply on their mistakes.”
South Korean entertainment, including television, is banned in North Korea.
🚨🇰🇵RARE FOOTAGE FROM NORTH KOREA: TEENS PUNISHED FOR WATCHING SOUTH KOREAN TV
Chilling footage from North Korea allegedly shows two teenage boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean ‘K-dramas.’
Source:… pic.twitter.com/qPyCnEO6HL
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 18, 2024
However, some are willing to risk severe penalties to gain access to K-dramas that have huge global audiences.
Such footage is rare because North Korea prohibits photos, videos and other evidence of life inside the country from leaking to the outside world.
This video was provided to the BBC by South and North Development (Sand), a research institute that works with defectors from the North.
This suggests that the authorities are taking stricter action against such incidents. The clip was reportedly distributed in North Korea for ideological training and to warn citizens against watching “decadent recordings”.
The video features an announcer repeating state propaganda. “The culture of the rotten puppet regime has spread even among teenagers,” the voice says, apparently referring to South Korea. “They are only 16 years old, but they have ruined their own future,” he adds.
The boys have been named by officers and their addresses have been released.
In the past, minors who broke the law in this way were sent to youth labor camps rather than behind bars, and the sentence was usually less than five years.
In 2020, however, Pyongyang passed a law making watching or distributing South Korean entertainment punishable by death.
A deserter previously told the BBC he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man being shot dead. He claimed the man was accused of listening to South Korean music and sharing movies from the South with his friend.
“Judging by the severe punishment, this seems like an edification lesson for people all over North Korea. If it’s really the case, it turns out that the way of life stemming from South Korean culture is quite popular among the people of the North,” said Choe Kyung-hui, head of SAND and a PhD in political science from the University of Tokyo who defected from the DPRK in 2001.
“I think the video was shot in 2022 … What worries North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is that the Millennials and the Zets have changed their mindsets. I think Kim is working to push back the North Korean mindset,” Chue added.
“Admiration of South Korean society may soon lead to a weakening of the system… This goes against the monolithic ideology that makes North Koreans revere the Kim family,” Chue added.
North Koreans got a taste of South Korean entertainment in the 2000s, during the South’s “sunshine policy” years, when it offered unconditional economic and humanitarian aid to the North.
Seoul ended the policy in 2010, saying it found that the aid had not reached the ordinary North Koreans it was intended for and that it had not led to any “positive changes” in Pyongyang’s behavior.
But South Korean entertainment continues to reach North Korea via China.
“If you get caught watching an American drama, you can get away with a bribe, but if you watch a Korean drama, you will be shot,” a North Korean defector told BBC Korean on Thursday. “For North Koreans, Korean dramas are a ‘drug’ that helps them forget their harsh reality.”
“In North Korea, we learn that South Korea lives much worse than us, but when you watch South Korean dramas, it’s a completely different world. It seems that the North Korean authorities are worried about this,” said another North Korean defector.
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2024-01-20 05:33:00
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