22-Yr-Old North Korean Man Publicly Executed For Listening To K-Pop, Watching South Korean Films

New Delhi: A North Korean youth was publicly executed by authorities apparently for listening to and sharing K-pop music and films, according to a Human Rights report released by South Korea’s Unification ministry.

A young man from North Korea’s South Hwanghae province was executed after being found guilty of listening to 70 South Korean songs, watching three films and sharing them, according to the 2024 Report on North Korean Human Rights.

North Korean authorities said the youth violated the country’s 2020 law prohibiting “reactionary ideology and culture,” The Guardian reported.

North Korea views South Korean pop culture as corrupting influence of Western culture, and aims to shield such stuff from its public.

A campaign to block K-pop and other South Korean works was initiated under former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and intensified under his son, Kim Jong-un.

For the uninitiated, K-pop and K-dramas are forms of South Korean film and music entertainment which have taken the world by storm.

“After watching Korean dramas, many young people wonder, ‘Why do we have to live like this?’ I thought I’d rather die than live in North Korea,” the defector was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

The report includes testimonies from 649 North Korean defectors which deals with crackdown on Western influence and information flow into the Communist nation.

So serious is the Kim Jong Un administration that officials frequently inspect mobile phones for contact names, expressions and slang believed to be influenced by South Korean culture.

According to the report, “reactionary” activities like brides wearing white dresses, grooms carrying brides, wearing sunglasses, or using wine glasses for alcohol are also dealt with severe punishment.

Korea was divided into separate zones of occupation by the then-Soviet Union and the US, respectively, following World War II. Separate governments were formed, eventually leading to the outbreak of Korean War in 1950.