Children are ‘being executed by North Korea’ for listening to K-pop and watching TV shows, including Netflix’s Squid Game(Image: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
North Korea are putting schoolchildren to death for watching TV shows like Squid Game and for listening to popular music.
Harrowing new testimony, shared by Amnesty International claims people also face execution for listening to South Korean music genre K-pop. Amnesty say the they conducted interview with a number of citizens who fled the Kim Jong-un’s regime. Globally popular show Squid Game revolves around a secret contest where people in deep financial hardship risk their lives to play a series of games.
Watching other South Korean dramas such as Crash Landing on You and Descendants of the Sun also led to humiliating punishments, including death in extreme cases, the agency were told. Amnesty also claimed the less well-off were likely to suffer the most because they were “unable to pay corrupt officials” to avoid prosecution.
The testimonies were revealed today following 25 in-depth interviews with escapees who fled the country between 2009 and 2020. Jong-un became North Korea’s Supreme Leader following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is reportedly not a fan of South Korean dramas
“People in North Korea, including schoolchildren, are being publicly executed, sent to labour camps or subjected to brutal public humiliation for watching South Korean television shows or listening to K-pop,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“North Koreans who fled the country told Amnesty that watching globally popular South Korean dramas – including Crash Landing on You, Descendants of the Sun and Squid Game – or listening to South Korean pop music can lead to the most extreme punishments, including death. Those without money or connections face the harshest consequences.”
“When we were 16 and 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” said Kim Eunju, 40, as reported by the organisation. “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”
Very few have managed to escape North Korea since Covid(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Escapes have rarely happened since 2020, when Covid border closures sealed the country off. Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director, said: “These testimonies show how North Korea is enforcing dystopian laws that mean watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life – unless you can afford to pay
“The authorities criminalise 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. People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.
“This completely arbitrary system, built on fear and corruption, violates fundamental principles of justice and internationally recognised human rights. It must be dismantled.”