Seoul: North Korea is reportedly executing people, including schoolchildren, subjecting them to brutal public humiliation for watching South Korean TV shows, including the very popular ‘Squid Game’ among other shows and listening to K-Pop, reports said.
According to testimonies collected by Amnesty International, North Koreans who have escaped the country say that watching widely popular South Korean dramas — such as Crash Landing on You, Descendants of the Sun and Squid Game — or listening to K-pop can result in the harshest punishments, including death.
A wave of fear has gripped the nation, where South Korean culture is treated as a serious crime. While wealthier families can sometimes avoid punishment by paying bribes to corrupt officials, those without money or influential connections are said to face the most severe consequences, reports said.
Interviewees told Amnesty International that newer South Korean content has been reaching North Korea faster than in the past. They pointed to hit dramas from the 2010s, including Crash Landing on You — notable for its North Korea setting — and Descendants of the Sun, which centres on the military.
One interviewee even said that an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province reported that people, including high school students, were executed for watching Squid Game. Radio Free Asia separately documented an execution in North Hamgyong Province in 2021 for distributing the series. Taken together, accounts from different provinces suggest multiple executions linked to the show.
Listening to South Korean pop music is also targeted by the authorities, interviewees said. K-pop songs, including those by BTS, were singled out. In 2021, The Korea Times reported that North Korean teenagers were caught and punished for listening to BTS.
North Koreans who fled between 2012 and 2020 said people commonly watched South Korean television despite knowing the risks, but that punishment often depended on wealth and connections.
Kim Joonsik, 28, said he was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019, but avoided punishment because his family had connections.
“Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” he said. “I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections,” Joonsik told Amnesty International.
