Death penalty for high school students for watching dramas in North Korea

Three high school students were executed for watching the series in North Korea, to which they responded by testing ballistic missiles.

This is not the first death sentence in a country where listening to and watching South Korean music and TV shows is banned. News broke last year that seven people who watched K-pop music videos were executed in North Korea.

According to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, in early October, three schoolchildren were executed in North Korea for watching dramas from neighboring South Korea. In North Korea, the act of consuming South Korean audiovisual content is considered a crime, as outlined in a new law passed in December 2020. Although minors were not executed for breaking the law, it turned out that the punishment now extended to young people.

According to the report, three male high school students were caught watching South Korean and American TV programs in Hyesan, a city near the border between North Korea and China. The arrested youth was sentenced to death. The execution was met with great reaction in the world press. North Korean citizens are known to be interested in South Korean TV series and music. According to a survey conducted by Unification Media Group, 96 percent of respondents have watched popular South Korean dramas such as Squid Game and Crash Landing on Love.

7 People Who Watched K-Pop Were Executed
This is not the first time that North Korea has executed its citizens for watching South Korean dramas. News broke last year that seven people had been executed after watching K-pop music videos that Kim Jong-un called “cancer.” It is known that laughing and drinking are forbidden for 11 days to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il in a country where interesting bans are in place.