1 of 1 Reproduction of a video received from the BBC Photo: BBC Reproduction of a video received from the BBC Photo: BBC
Rare footage from BBC Korean shows North Korea publicly sentencing two teenagers to 12 years of hard labor for watching Kdramas (South Korean television series).
The images, apparently taken in 2022, show two 16yearold boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students at an outdoor stadium.
It also shows uniformed officers berating the boys for “not thinking carefully about their mistakes.”
Still, some are willing to risk severe punishment to gain access to Kdramas, which have huge global audiences.
Images like these are rare because North Korea bans the sharing of photos, videos and other evidence of life in the country with the outside world.
The video was provided to the BBC by the Institute for Southern and Northern Development (Sand), a research body that works with northern defectors.
This suggests that authorities are taking a stricter approach to such incidents.
The video features a narrator repeating state propaganda. “The culture of decadent puppet rule has even spread to teenagers,” the voice says, apparently referring to South Korea.
“They are only 16 years old, but they have ruined their own future,” he added.
The boys were also identified by the officers and their addresses were revealed.
In the past, minors who broke the law in this way were sent to juvenile labor camps rather than prison, and the sentence was usually less than five years.
However, in 2020, Pyongyang passed a law making watching or distributing South Korean entertainment programs punishable by death.
A defector previously told the BBC he was forced to witness the shooting of a 22yearold man. He said the man was accused of listening to South Korean music and sharing South Korean films with a friend.
Sand CEO Choi Kyonghui said Pyongyang sees the spread of Kdramas and Kpop as a threat to its ideology.
“Admiration for South Korean society can quickly lead to the weakening of the system… This contradicts the monolithic ideology that makes North Koreans worship the Kim family,” she said.
North Koreans first came into contact with South Korean entertainment in the 2000s, during the years of the South's “Sunshine Policy,” which offered unconditional economic and humanitarian aid to the North.
Seoul ended the policy in 2010, saying the aid was not reaching the ordinary North Koreans it was intended for and that it had not led to “positive changes” in Pyongyang's behavior.
However, South Korean entertainment continued to enter North Korea via China.
“If you get caught watching an American drama, you can get away with a bribe, but if you watch a Korean drama, it's certain death,” a North Korean defector told BBC Korean on Thursday.
“For North Koreans, Korean dramas are a 'drug' that helps them forget their difficult reality,” the defector said.
“In North Korea, we learn that South Korea has it much worse than us, but when you watch South Korean dramas, it's a completely different world. It seems like the North Korean authorities are worried about it,” said another North Korean defector in his 20s.
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