North Korea ‘publicly executes 22-year-old man for listening to K-pop’ as part of ruthless crackdown on Western culture
- North Korean man executed for listening to K-pop, according to report
North Korea has publicly executed a 22-year-old man for listening to and sharing K-pop. This is part of Pyongyang’s brutal repression against Western culture, according to a human rights report released by South Korea.
Testimony in the report discusses the public execution of a young man from South Hwanghae Province in 2022 after he listened to 70 South Korean songs, watched three films and distributed them. This was an act of resistance against the laws of the totalitarian dictatorship against Western culture.
The reportpublished yesterday by South Korea’s Ministry of Reunification also detailed North Korea’s extensive efforts to control the flow of information outward as the country falls under the rubric of a non-socialist culture.
The document contains testimonies from nearly 650 North Korean defectors.
The ban on K-pop is part of a relentless campaign to protect North Koreans from the “malign” influence of the West that began under former leader Kim Jong-il and intensified under the rule of his son Kim Jong-un.
A report investigating human rights in North Korea, conducted by South Korea, has revealed how a man in his early 20s was publicly executed after listening to South Korean pop music, part of a crackdown by the authoritarian regime on Western influence
Despite North Korea’s harsh measures, the influence of South Korean and Western culture is an unstoppable force
According to the US government-funded Radio Free Asia, The regime cracked down on ‘capitalist’ fashion and hairstyles, targeting skinny jeans and T-shirts with foreign words, as well as dyed or long hair.
Other examples of Western customs for which North Koreans can be punished include brides wearing white dresses, women wearing shorts, sunglasses and drinking alcohol from wine glasses – customs seen as South Korean.
South Korea’s popular culture seeping into the North could pose a threat to the country’s extremist ideology, experts say.
But despite North Korea’s strict measures, the influence of South Korean and Western culture in general is unstoppable.
38 North, a website dedicated to providing analysis on North Korea, said its citizens have more opportunities to consume outside information and media than ever before.
Previously they could only be accessed through modified radios and television sets, but today they can download movies onto DVDs and USB sticks. They can also access it via computers and smartphones. This has prompted government officials to improve their monitoring methods.
A North Korean defector said that “the speed at which South Korean culture is influencing North Korea is extremely fast. Young people follow and copy South Korean culture, and they really love everything South Korean,” as reported by The guard.
North Korea has dropped hundreds of balloons filled with feces and garbage over South Korea in recent weeks in retaliation for distributing propaganda leaflets about the communist regime.
North Korean defectors are known to send balloons to the North Side containing anti-regime leaflets, as well as reportedly USB memory sticks containing Korean pop music and videos, which are banned in North Korea.