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North Korea: two teenagers sentenced to forced labor for watching South Korean series
North Korea: two teenagers sentenced to forced labor for watching South Korean series – (France 2)
In North Korea, it is forbidden to consume entertainment videos, particularly from its southern neighbor, under penalty of being sentenced to forced labor or the death penalty, as the law says.
The scene takes place in North Korea a few months ago. Heads bowed in the center of the image, two teenagers are sentenced in front of their comrades to twelve years of forced labor for having watched South Korean series, formally banned by the North Korean regime. Since 2020, Kim Jong-un has toughened the rules to fight against what he calls “reactionary culture”. Clearly, the Western style of dress is banned, hair coloring prohibited, music and films produced abroad completely prohibited.
Circumventing censorship would be more and more common
Despite these rules, North Koreans are increasingly able to circumvent censorship. “Today, hardware as small as a USB stick can store a lot of South Korean cultural content, this accelerates the spread of this culture on North Korean territory and this makes the government very nervous”, explained Yui Haeng Cho, a member of the South Korean SAND Research Institute. This public trial would therefore be a firm call to order. The footage from this trial is a rare image of the harshness of the North Korean regime.
