Chilling footage has emerged showing two North Korean teenagers sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching K-dramas.
The rare footage, reportedly shot in 2022, shows the two 16-year-old boys being handcuffed by uniformed officers in front of hundreds of students at an open-air stadium in an undisclosed location.
The youths were arrested for “not thinking deeply about their mistakes” after being caught watching South Korean television, which is banned in the North along with K-pop music.
The clip shows the two boys, dressed in gray uniforms, standing before a panel of officials as they were sentenced to twelve years of hard labor.
A sea of young students, all wearing face masks and matching uniforms, watch the two youths as they are handcuffed and led away.
Images from the hermit country are rare, with Kim Jong Un’s North Korea banning videos and photos of life in the country from being shown to the outside world.
The rare footage, reportedly filmed in 2022, shows the two 16-year-old boys being handcuffed by uniformed officers in front of hundreds of students at an open-air stadium in an undisclosed location.
The clip shows the two boys, dressed in gray uniforms, standing before a panel of officials as they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor
A sea of young students, all wearing face masks and matching uniforms, watch the two youths as they were handcuffed and led away by two uniformed officials.
Still, the clip, obtained by the BBC from the SAND Institute that works with North Korean defectors was reportedly shown to North Koreans as a warning of what would happen to them if they watched “decadent recordings.”
In the ‘educational’ video, a narrator can be heard reenacting state propaganda. Referring to South Korea, they said: “The culture of the rotten puppet regime has spread even among teenagers.
“They are only 16 years old, but they have ruined their own future.”
Foreign media, especially anything considered “Western,” is strictly prohibited in North Korea, which brainwashes its population into supporting the ruling regime.
In the past, young people who watched or broadcast K-dramas were sent to youth labor camps instead of going to jail.
But in 2020, North Korea imposed a sweeping “anti-reactionary thought” law that made enjoying South Korean entertainment punishable by death.
In December 2022, it emerged that two teenagers in North Korea had been executed by firing squad for watching and selling films from the South.
The pair, both boys believed to be aged between 16 and 17, were gunned down at an airport in October 2022 in front of terrified locals in the city of Hyesan, on the border with China – although news of their deaths was only two came out months ago. later on.
In addition to them, a third boy of the same age was executed for killing his stepmother. Locals were told the crimes were ‘equally bad’.
Two sources who witnessed the executions confirmed what happened to Radio Free Asia.
The clip shows the two boys, dressed in gray uniforms, standing before a panel of officials as they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor
Kim Jong-un (photo on January 15) views South Korea as an American puppet state and is sensitive to media crossing the border
One said: “Hyesan residents gathered in groups on the airstrip. The authorities brought the teenage students before the public, sentenced them to death and shot them immediately.”
Kim Jong-un views South Korea as an American puppet state and is sensitive to media crossing the border.
But despite strict controls, such items are often smuggled into the country on USB drives or SD cards.
These are usually brought across the border from China and then exchanged among North Koreans.
The ruling communist regime uses informants recruited from the general population to catch those selling the discs.
In the case of the two teenagers executed in 2022, one of these spies reported selling USB sticks containing the programs on the local market.
Such executions are rare in North Korea but not unheard of, and are typically used to scare people into compliance when authorities worry about breaking the rules.
North Korean youth caught watching foreign films risk being sent to a disciplinary labor center, a source in Hyesan said.
A second offense means that they are sent to a penal camp for five years together with their parents, as punishment for not disciplining their children.
But anyone caught distributing or selling South Korean films could face the death penalty, even if they are underage, the source said.
In 2021, it was even reported that a North Korean man was shot by a firing squad for illegally selling South Korean films and music.
The father, whose surname was Lee, was arrested in Wonsan, Gangwon Province, in 2021 before being executed in front of his family, who were forced to watch.
Lee, who was a chief engineer at the Wonsan Farming Management Commission, was accused by authorities of “anti-socialist acts” for trading the South Korean videos, a source told Daily NK at the time.
The publication claimed that Lee was caught by the daughter of the leader of his “people’s unit,” the neighborhood watch group, while secretly selling the films and music.
Lee was executed just 40 days after his arrest, with his wife, son and daughter forced to stand in the front row and watch his final moments.