North Korea subjects citizens, including children, to execution and severe punishment for watching South Korean television and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers and escapee testimonies say. Amnesty International, a leading global human rights organisation, has published new testimony from defectors claiming that North Koreans caught consuming foreign media face arbitrary and often lethal punishment. According to Amnesty’s recent statement, individuals who watched South Korean dramas such as Squid Game have been executed, with children sometimes forced to attend as part of ‘ideological education.’
Testimonies From Escapees and Amnesty Research
Amnesty International conducted 25 in-depth interviews with North Korean escapees who left the country before 2020, most aged between 15 and 25 at the time of defection. The organisation’s findings describe a system in which the regime enforces its ‘Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act‘ to suppress access to foreign media, branding South Korean content as ‘rotten ideology that paralyses the people’s revolutionary sense.’
Under this law, merely watching or possessing South Korean films, dramas or music can carry between five and 15 years of forced labour, while distributing large amounts or organising viewings carries heavier sentences, including the death penalty. Several interviewees reported that ordinary citizens were executed for consuming banned media.
One defector recounted hearing from relatives in Yanggang Province of executions of ‘people, including high school students,’ who watched Squid Game. Similar incidents were reported by other sources. Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director, Sarah Brooks, said the penalties were both arbitrary and deeply corrupt, with wealthier families sometimes escaping the harshest outcomes by bribing officials.
Reuters
Brutal Enforcement and Public Executions
Escapees described a pervasive climate of fear enforced by a specialised unit often referred to as the ‘109 Group,’ which conducts warrantless searches of homes and mobile phones in search of foreign media. Those caught risk arrest and severe punishment, while bribery sometimes influences outcomes.
Some former residents said public executions were staged as warnings. One interviewee described attending a public shooting in Sinuiju where someone accused of distributing foreign media was executed before tens of thousands of people. Schools reportedly compelled students to witness such events as part of indoctrination.
These reports align with other defector testimony presented publicly. At a session hosted by the United Nations Human Rights Office in Seoul in June 2025, North Korean defectors, including Kim Il-hyuk, testified that individuals had been executed by firing squad for distributing South Korean dramas and K-pop, sometimes with multiple people killed in a single event.
Reuters
Historical Cases and Verification Challenges
While the recent Amnesty report focuses on testimonial evidence from defectors, earlier cases highlight similar patterns. A 2021 report from Radio Free Asia, an outlet specialising in information from within North Korea, said a man was sentenced to death by firing squad for smuggling Squid Game into the country on a USB drive. In that case, students who watched the show reportedly received long prison terms or hard labour, and school staff faced dismissal or exile to work sites.
However, independent verification of specific executions remains challenging. Human rights researchers, including Amnesty, note that due to severe restrictions on access to North Korea, they cannot independently confirm every alleged execution with official documents or state records. Amnesty’s reporting relies on multiple consistent testimonies from people who escaped the country, analysed for internal coherence and cross-regional consistency.
Neutral assessments from international human rights organisations have long documented severe infringements on expression and information access in North Korea. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report described systemic use of executions, arbitrary detention and other brutal punishments to enforce obedience and suppress dissent.
Corruption and Inequality in Punishment
Testimonies emphasise that punishment for foreign media consumption is not applied uniformly. Wealthier families or those with connections to officials often avoid the harshest penalties. One escapee said people would sell their homes to pay sums equivalent to between £3,700 ($5,000) and £7,350 ($10,000) to secure release from re-education camps.
Others described how students with family connections received only warnings despite being caught. This discretionary enforcement underscores the arbitrary nature of the system, according to Amnesty.
North Korea’s treatment of individuals who consume foreign media stands in stark contrast to international human rights norms. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the country ratified in 1981, protects freedom of expression and prohibits arbitrary deprivation of life. Amnesty noted that exposing children to public executions also violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by North Korea in 1990.
North Korea’s repression of foreign media consumption reflects a wider strategy of fear and control that continues to draw condemnation from human rights advocates and international bodies.