North Korean authorities are carrying out executions and harsh punishments against students accused of consuming South Korean television shows and music, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
The human rights group says school-aged children — including teenagers and middle school students — have been publicly executed, sent to labor camps or subjected to public humiliation for watching banned foreign media such as K-pop and South Korean dramas, including Netflix’s hit series “Squid Game,” according to the New York Post.
Amnesty’s findings are based on 25 in-depth interviews conducted in 2025 with North Koreans who escaped the country between 2012 and 2020. Most of those interviewed were between 15 and 25 when they fled.
One escapee told Amnesty that high school students were executed in Yanggang Province, near the Chinese border, for watching “Squid Game.”
Separate reporting by Radio Free Asia documented an execution for distributing the show in neighboring North Hamgyong Province in 2021.
“Taken together, these reports from different provinces suggest multiple executions related to the shows,” Amnesty wrote.
The report says the crackdown has intensified under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, particularly following the introduction of the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act.
The law labels South Korean media as “rotten ideology that paralyses the people’s revolutionary sense.”
Under the law, watching or possessing South Korean films, television shows, or music carries a sentence of five to 15 years of forced labor. Distributing the content or organizing group viewings can result in even harsher penalties, including execution.
Several escapees said enforcement is often influenced by money and connections.
“People are caught for the same act, but punishment depends entirely on money,” said Choi Suvin, 39, who fled North Korea in 2019.
“People without money sell their houses to gather $5,000 or $10,000 to pay to get out of the re-education camps,” he added.
Another escapee, Kim Joonsik, 28, said he avoided punishment after being caught multiple times because his family had connections.
“Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” he said. “I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections.”
Others were not as fortunate. Kim said three of his sister’s high school friends were sent to labor camps for years because their families could not afford bribes.
Some interviewees described being forced to attend public executions as children.
“When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” said Kim Eunju, 40. “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”
Amnesty also detailed the role of a special police unit known as the “109 Group,” which conducts warrantless raids and searches for foreign media.
Despite the risks, foreign shows and music continue to circulate inside North Korea.
“Workers watch it openly, party officials watch it proudly, security agents watch it secretly and police watch it safely,” one interviewee said.
“These testimonies show how North Korea is enforcing dystopian laws that mean watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life — unless you can afford to pay,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director.
