North Korean officials publicly sentenced two teenagers to 12 years of hard labor for watching K-pop videos, according to video footage published by an agency that collaborates with North Korean defectors.
The clip was made by the South and North Development (SAND) Institute and depicts the two Pyongyang teenagers found guilty of watching South Korean movies and music videos. The clip in question was first published by the BBC.
Photos, films, and other documentation of life in North Korea cannot be released to the outside world. Therefore, footage like this is very unusual.
Punished Over K-Pop Videos
Following the imposition of a comprehensive new "Anti-Reactionary Thought" legislation in 2020, North Korea has, for years, enforced severe punishments on anybody seen enjoying South Korean entertainment or imitating the speech patterns of the South Korean people to combat foreign influences.
"Judging from the heavy punishment, it seems that this is to be shown to people across North Korea to warn them," Choi Kyong-hui told Reuters, the president of SAND and a doctor of political science from Tokyo University, who defected from North Korea in 2001. She remarked that if that is the case, then this South Korean way of life is perhaps common in North Korean society.
"I think this video was edited around 2022 ... What is troublesome for (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un is that Millennials and Gen Z young people have changed their way of thinking. I think he's working on turning it back to the North Korean way."
The two students in grey scrubs are seen handcuffed in a video shot by North Korean officials during a public trial that around 1,000 pupils witnessed in an amphitheater. It appears that the video was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic since all pupils, including the two 16-year-olds, are wearing face masks.
After three months of viewing and sharing South Korean films, music, and music videos, the students were found guilty and condemned, as seen in the clip.
A narrator who speaks on behalf of the state repeats propaganda throughout the video. According to the speaker, "The rotten puppet regime's culture has spread even to teenagers," likely referring to South Korea. "They are just 16 years old, but they ruined their own future," it continues.
South's Pop Culture
The South Korean pop culture, according to Choi, is seen by Pyongyang as a threat to its ideology.
She said that the system may be undermined by showing admiration for South Korean society that contradicts the North Koreans' devotion to the Kim family, which is based on a monolithic ideology.
South Korean entertainment began to reach North Koreans in the 2000s with Seoul's "Sunshine Policy" of unconditional economic and humanitarian aid. Seoul halted the approach in 2010 since the assistance failed to reach regular North Koreans and showed no positive changes in Pyongyang's stance.
