North Korea publicly executes two minors for watching, distributing K-dramas: Report

Two high school students were executed in North Korea for watching and distributing South Korean (K-drama) shows among their friends. According to Radio Free Asia, viewing and distributing K-dramas in the country is against North Korea's laws.

The shocking execution for watching and distributing K-drama is a rare display of punishment in the Kim Jong Un regime, the report said.

The teenagers watched several Korean and American drama shows at a high school in Ryanggang Province in North Korea, which shares its border with China, in early October, reported The Independent citing Korean media.

The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were sentenced to death in public and immediately shot down by the authorities at an airfield in Hyesan while residents were made to watch forcibly, the report said. The regime members called the "crimes" committed by the minors as "evil".

North Korea rolled out the law governing ideological and cultural tools in 2020. Under the law, the ruling regime banned foreign information and influence in a crackdown directed at the rising popularity of Korean shows and music.

In order to escape fines, imprisonment, or worse, death, South Korean shows are smuggled on flash drives and watched behind closed doors in North Korea.

Recently North Korea announced that parents should give kids ‘patriotic’ names like ‘Bomb’, ‘Gun’ and ‘Satellite’. The country is cracking down on names that the government thinks are ‘too soft’.

An 11-day mourning period was announced last year in North Korea to mark the death anniversary of Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong Il. Citizens were not allowed to laugh, shop or drink during the period.

 
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