Amnesty Reports Public Executions Over K-Drama and K-Pop Consumption in North Korea

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Pyongyang : North Korea is reportedly imposing extreme punishments, including public executions, on people caught consuming popular South Korean media such as Netflix’s Squid Game and K-pop music, according to a new human rights investigation. The findings, released by Amnesty International, paint a grim picture of the regime’s efforts to suppress foreign cultural influence and maintain ideological control over its population.

Amnesty’s report, based on dozens of interviews with North Koreans who have fled the country, details cases in which individuals accused of watching South Korean television dramas or listening to banned music faced some of the harshest penalties available under the nation’s strict cultural laws. Witnesses said people in their teens including school-aged youth were among those publicly executed or sent to labour camps as part of the crackdown.

The testimonies suggest that penalties vary widely depending on a person’s social standing. Wealthier families and those with connections to officials can sometimes avoid severe punishments, while poorer citizens face the full brunt of the regime’s enforcement, participants said. Many described being made to witness executions as a form of “ideological education,” designed to deter others from accessing forbidden content.

North Korea’s Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, enacted in 2020, categorises foreign media especially from South Korea as a serious threat to the state’s revolutionary ideology. Under this law, mere possession or distribution of such material can trigger years of forced labour, public humiliation, or even the death penalty for the most serious violations.

Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Sarah Brooks, said the punishments reflect a deeper climate of repression in which access to information is tightly controlled and dissenting cultural influences are ruthlessly eliminated. “People seeking even basic entertainment from abroad risk the harshest consequences,” Brooks said, calling the system “arbitrary and built on fear and corruption.”

The rights group is urging the international community to push for reforms and to hold Pyongyang accountable for what it describes as violations of fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression and access to information. North Korean authorities have denied such criticism in the past and maintain tight restrictions on media and communication within the country.