Amnesty International has accused North Korea of executing citizens — including schoolchildren — for watching South Korean television dramas such as Squid Game and listening to K-pop music, describing the practice as part of a brutal and corrupt system of repression.
In a new report based on testimonies from North Korean escapees, the human rights organisation said access to foreign media is treated as a serious crime, with punishments ranging from years of forced labour to public execution. The report noted that poorer citizens are far more likely to face death or long prison sentences, while wealthier individuals often avoid punishment through bribery.
Amnesty revealed that people caught consuming South Korean content are arbitrarily punished under the country’s 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, which labels such media as “rotten ideology.” Watching or possessing South Korean films or music can attract up to 15 years of forced labour, while distributing or organising group viewings may result in execution.
Several escapees told Amnesty that students were executed in Yanggang and North Hamgyong provinces for watching Squid Game, while others who viewed the show received life sentences or lengthy terms of hard labour. In one widely reported case, a student who smuggled copies of the series into the country in 2021 was executed by firing squad.
The report also detailed the activities of a special police unit known as the “109 Group,” which conducts warrantless searches of homes and mobile phones in search of foreign media. Defectors said public executions are routinely used as a tool of intimidation, with students and entire communities forced to attend as a warning.
Despite the severe penalties, Amnesty said South Korean dramas and music continue to circulate widely in North Korea, smuggled in on USB drives from China. According to escapees, even government officials and security agents secretly consume the banned content.
Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director, Sarah Brooks, described the system as an “ideological cage” sustained by fear, violence, and corruption, calling it a clear violation of international human rights standards.
“This arbitrary system must be dismantled,” she said.
