2024-01-21 15:05:00
North Korea is known for imposing restrictions on its inhabitants that are considered unusual, and in some cases extreme, to West. Being a hermetic country in its relationship with the world, little is known with certainty regarding what happens there. However, new images allow us to see two young men convicted for having consumed South Korean television.
As can be seen, two 16 year old boys They were handcuffed in front of hundreds of students outdoors, while uniformed officers reprimanded them for not “reflecting deeply on their mistakes.” In that place, the young people were tried and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching K-dramas, something that is extremely prohibited in the country.
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Images like these, which appear to have been filmed in 2022are rare to find, because North Korea prohibits photos, videos and other evidence of life in the country leak to the outside world and whoever does so will suffer a harsh sentence.
Despite the severe restrictions, the South and North Development Institute (Sand Institute, for its acronym in English), a space where they work with North Korean defectors, was able to access this footage and share it with the South Korean BBC.
Two young people sentenced for watching South Korean series
The footage of the two convicted young men was developed and distributed throughout North Korea in order to ideologically educate citizens and to warn them not to watch “decadent recordings.”
The video includes a narrator repeating state propaganda. “The culture of the rotten puppet regime has spread even to teenagers,” the voice says, in apparent reference to South Korea. “They are only 16 years old, but they ruined their own future”, Add. Eventually, officers also named the children and revealed their addresses.
The ban of South Korean series in North Korea
South Korean entertainment, including television and all types of content, is strictly prohibited in North Korea. However, there are those who are willing to risk severe punishments in order to access K-dramas, series recognized around the world.
Previously, minors who violated this law were sent to labor camps for youths rather than being imprisoned, and the punishment was generally less than five years. However, in 2020 Pyongyang enacted a rule to punish with death to those who watch or distribute South Korean entertainment.
One defector told the BBC in the past that he was forced to watch as 22-year-old man shot dead. He said the man was accused of listening to South Korean music and had shared South Korean movies with his friend.
Sand CEO Choi Kyong-hui commented that Pyongyang sees the spread of K-dramas and K-pop as a danger to its ideology. “Admiration for South Korean society may soon lead to a weakening of the system… This goes once morest the monolithic ideology that makes North Koreans revere the Kim family,” he said.
The arrival of K-dramas in North Korea
The arrival of South Korean entertainment in North Korea occurred in the 2000s, during the years of the “sunshine policy” of the South, which consisted of offering unconditional economic and humanitarian aid to the North.
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However, ten years later Seoul ended that policywarning that the aid was not reaching the ordinary North Koreans for whom it was intended and had not resulted in any “positive change” in Pyongyang’s behavior.
“If they catch you watching a american dramayou can get away with a bribe, but if you watch a Korean drama, you get shot,” one North Korean defector told BBC Korea on Thursday.
Despite this, South Korean entertainment continued to reach North Korea through China. “For the North Korean people, the Korean dramas are a ‘drug’ that helps them forget their difficult reality,” said the deserter.
“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 wary of that,” said another North Korean defector in her 20s.
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