North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching South Korea’s hit television series “Squid Game” and listening to K-pop music, a chilling new report has revealed.
The executions were revealed in testimony cited by human rights researchers.
Squid Game
Amnesty International cited the account of an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed specifically for watching the popular survival drama.
The organization also documented separate cases of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country.
The issues are particularly affecting individuals without financial resources or political connections.
Kim Joonsik, 28, was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving North Korea in 2019.
In a statement to Amnesty International, Joonsik said:
“Usually, when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings.
“I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections.”
Joonsik added that three of his sisters’ high school friends received multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, which he said reflected their families’ inability to pay bribes.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, said:
“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.
“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.”
Several defectors also told the organization they were required to witness public executions while still in school.
They describe the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination intended to deter exposure to foreign culture.
Kim Eunju, 40, told Amnesty International:
“When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything.
“People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media.
“It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”
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