North Korean teenagers sentenced to 12 years for K-pop
In North Korea, two 16-year-old boys were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean films and music videos, writes the Korean edition of the BBC, citing a video provided by the research institute South and North Development (SAND).
The footage, which was likely filmed in 2022, shows a public trial. Two teenagers in gray coats are handcuffed. Everyone present, including two 16-year-olds, wear masks, suggesting the footage was filmed during the COVID pandemic, Reuters notes. The video contains footage in which, in particular, teenagers are reprimanded in front of people gathered at the stadium for not “realizing their mistakes.”
“The culture of the rotten puppet regime has even spread to teenagers. They are only 16 years old, but they have ruined their future,” says the voiceover, referring to South Korea.
Previously, teenagers who violated the ban on watching South Korean films and listening to music were sent to youth labor camps, and the sentence did not exceed five years, the BBC writes. However, in 2020, the DPRK passed a law according to which such actions could be punishable by up to the death penalty.
One North Korean defector told the publication that he could get away with watching American films as a bribe, but if caught watching Korean films, it would be life-threatening. The defector said he witnessed the shooting of a 22-year-old man who was accused of listening to South Korean music and passing films to a friend.
“Admiration for South Korean society may soon lead to a weakening of the system... This contradicts the monolithic ideology that forces North Koreans to respect the Kim family,” explained Choi Kyung-hee, a doctor of political science at the University of Tokyo and SAND CEO, who fled North Korea in 2001.
He suggested that the video was edited in 2022. According to him, the North Korean government is worried that zoomers and millennials have “changed their way of thinking,” which is why Pyongyang is taking such measures.
