SEOUL (ANN/KOREA HERALD) – Testimonies from North Korean defectors reveal that the Kim Jong-un regime has conducted public executions of individuals caught distributing South Korean TV series, movies, or K-pop music under a 2020 law, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Thursday.
According to the 2024 North Korean Human Rights Report released by the ministry in Seoul, testimonies suggest an increase in public executions for violating the Law on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture. This law prohibits accessing, possessing, or distributing external information from “hostile countries,” including South Korea, and violations can result in the death penalty.
One anonymous defector described witnessing the public execution of a 22-year-old farm worker at a mine in South Hwanghae Province in 2022. “A person, believed to be a judge from the court, recited, ‘they were arrested for listening to 70 songs and three movies from the puppet scoundrels (South Korea).’ It was revealed during the interrogation process that he had distributed them to seven others,” the report said, citing the defector’s testimony.
“People who first brought in the material receive the harshest punishment, which is invariably execution by firing squad. The punishment for those who distribute it varies depending on the extent of their involvement,” the defector said.
The report represents the first time the South Korean government has publicly confirmed that the Kim Jong-un regime carried out public executions under the 2020 law. The 2024 report is based on the testimonies of 649 North Korean defectors who had fled their homeland by 2023, according to the ministry.
“There have been many public executions recently under the law,” one defector noted, adding that they heard those who violated the law, as well as those involved in “serious crimes such as murder,” were publicly executed simultaneously in 2023.
Another defector mentioned that they stopped watching outside content for fear of punishment after the law was enacted in 2020, adding that they witnessed North Korean people being punished for being caught. “Since Kim Jong-un came to power, it seems that he sweeps away anything he doesn’t like,” the defector said, calling the law “unreasonable.”
A third defector stated that they were instructed to write down the clauses of the law and post them on their door. The defector added that the content specified the maximum penalty for watching or distributing South Korean video content is “execution by firing squad.”
The Unification Ministry also reported that North Korea has reinforced clampdowns on youth, citing the Youth Education Guarantee Act of 2021 and the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act of 2023. Essentially, North Korea has strictly prohibited any cultural influences from South Korea.
A fourth defector recalled watching a lecture video in North Korea: “The narrator in the video mentioned that a groom carrying a bride at weddings was a ‘puppet style’ (South Korean style), and that women wearing multiple accessories like earrings and bracelets, brides wearing white dresses, wearing sunglasses, and drinking alcohol from wine glasses were all considered ‘reactionary.’”
The first defector testified that from 2021 to 2023, people were randomly stopped and searched on the streets. “The primary targets were young people. If their appearance or attire was considered ‘unfaithful’ or ‘distinctive’ by North Korean standards, they were subjected to body searches,” the defector said.
Other testimonies revealed that North Korean inspectors scrutinized contact lists on people’s mobile phones to ensure names were saved in the North Korean style, such as “Father,” rather than the South Korean style, like “Daddy.” A fifth defector reported that in 2020, parents were required to sign a pledge stating, “I will ensure that my children do not watch impure video content at home.”
“Authorities claim that the enforcement is to prevent residents’ ideologies from deteriorating, but the real reason for the crackdown is to prevent residents from becoming aware of the outside world, which could create difficulties for them,” the defector testified.
