North Korea publicly executed a 22-year-old man in 2022 for consuming and streaming South Korean music and movies, according to a report released by Seoul on Thursday, June 27.
To cut off its people from outside influence, North Korea is prepared to go to any extreme. According to the 2024 report on human rights in the country, published this Thursday, June 27 by the South Korean Ministry of Unification, a 22-year-old North Korean was publicly executed for listening to, watching and sharing South Korean music and films.
This document brings together the testimonies of 649 North Korean defectors, including one about this young man from South Hwanghae province, publicly executed in 2022. According to the Guardian, he was accused of having violated a North Korean law. Korean adopted in 2020, which prohibits “reactionary” and “cultural” ideology. He was accused of having listened to 70 songs and watched three South Korean films, which he then shared.
Pyongyang’s ban on K-pop began under Kim Jong-il’s regime and intensified under his son and successor, Kim Jong-un. It is part of a more global campaign aimed, according to the regime, at protecting North Koreans from the “malignant” influence of Western culture.
Pyongyang demands absolute loyalty to the Kim dynasty, which has ruled North Korea since its founding in 1948, and sees the intrusion of South Korean culture into North Korean society as a threat to its ideology.
However, it seems that the regime’s strictness on this issue does not prevent anything: during a press briefing in Seoul, one of the recent defectors assured that “South Korean culture is influencing North Korea at a very rapid pace.” According to her, “young people follow and copy South Korean culture, and they really like everything South Korean.”
“Why do we have to live like this?”
The 20-year-old woman fled North Korea last October on a wooden boat. She explained the unease North Koreans can feel, explaining that “after watching Korean dramas, many young people ask themselves, ‘Why do we have to live like this?'”
She herself remembers thinking that she “would rather die than live in North Korea” and does not hide the resentment she feels towards the authoritarian regime in Pyongyang. “Of course we can’t say anything bad publicly against Kim Jong-un, but among close friends, lovers or family members, we say these words,” she said.
According to the report published this Thursday, other practices deemed “reactionary” are harshly repressed in North Korea. The wearing of white dresses and sunglasses by the bride and groom or the consumption of alcohol in wine glasses at weddings are part of this, as they are considered South Korean customs.
The South Korean Unification Ministry also claims that North Koreans’ cell phones are regularly inspected to check the spelling of contact names or the expressions and vocabulary used. The two Koreas broadly share the same language, but subtle differences emerged after the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.
