In a chilling escalation of its crackdown on foreign influences, North Korea has publicly executed teenagers and others caught consuming South Korean media.
According to testimonies gathered by Amnesty International, teenagers are punished for consuming South Korean media including the hit Netflix series Squid Game and K-pop music.
A new report released this week by the human rights organization details accounts from 25 North Korean defectors—many young people who fled recently.
They —describing a regime that labels South Korean dramas, films, and pop culture as “rotten ideology” capable of paralyzing revolutionary spirit and threatening absolute state control.
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Under the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, possessing or watching such content can result in 5 to 15 years of forced labor
The distribution or organizing group viewings of these same contents also carry the death penalty in North Korea.
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Defectors recounted harrowing cases where high school students and other youths were executed by firing squad after being caught with smuggled USB drives or files containing shows like Squid Game, Crash Landing on You, or Descendants of the Sun, as well as songs by groups like BTS.
One testimony referenced executions in provinces such as Yanggang and North Hamgyong, with some specifically tied to Squid Game consumption or sharing.
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Bribery often determines outcomes: wealthier or well-connected individuals may escape severe punishment, while the poor face the harshest consequences like public humiliation or execution.
The regime enforces these laws through fear and spectacle. Multiple escapees described being forced—as schoolchildren—to attend public executions of those accused of distributing foreign media.
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Tens of thousands of residents have been mobilized to witness such events in cities like Sinuiju, serving as stark “ideological education” to deter others.
“If you watch, this happens to you too,” one defector recalled authorities emphasizing.
Consumption of South Korean content remains widespread despite the risks, often smuggled via USBs from China or shared secretly.
Defectors noted that even enforcers may privately engage with the same media they punish others for accessing,.
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