North Korea executes schoolchildren caught watching Squid Game, K-Pop and K-drama

According to new testimony from human rights organization Amnesty International, people have been put to death if they were caught watching certain TV programs

North Korea kills schoolchildren for watching TV shows like Squid Game and listening to popular music.

Harrowing new testimonies shared by Amnesty International claim that people can also be executed for listening to the South Korean music genre K-pop. Amnesty says it has conducted interviews with a number of citizens who fled Kim Jong-un’s regime. The globally popular series Squid Game revolves around a secret competition where people in dire financial straits risk their lives to play a series of games.

Watching other South Korean dramas such as Crash Landing on You and Descendants of the Sun also led to humiliating punishments, including death in extreme cases, the agency was told. Amnesty also claimed that the less fortunate were likely to suffer the most because they were “unable to pay corrupt officials” to avoid prosecution.

The testimonies were revealed today after 25 in-depth interviews with refugees who fled the country between 2009 and 2020. Jong-un became North Korea’s supreme leader after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011.

“People in North Korea, including schoolchildren, are publicly executed, sent to labor camps or subjected to brutal public humiliation for watching South Korean television programs or listening to K-pop,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

“North Koreans who have fled the country told Amnesty that watching globally popular South Korean dramas – including Crash Landing on You, Descendants of the Sun and Squid Game – or listening to South Korean pop music can lead to the most extreme punishments, including death. Those without money or connections face the harshest consequences.”

“When we were 16 and 17, in high school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” said Kim Eunju, 40, as reported by the organization. “People were executed for watching or spreading South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this will happen to you too.”

Escapes have been rare since 2020, when Covid-19 border closures locked down the country. Sarah Brooks, Deputy Regional Director of Amnesty International, said: “These testimonies show how North Korea enforces dystopian laws that mean watching a South Korean TV show could cost you your life – unless you can afford to pay

“The authorities criminalize access to information that violates international law, then allows officials to take advantage of those who fear punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it especially devastates those without wealth or connections.

“This government’s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, stifling their access to other people’s views and thoughts. People who strive to learn about the world beyond North Korea, or simply seek entertainment from abroad, face the harshest penalties.

“This completely arbitrary system, built on fear and corruption, violates fundamental principles of justice and internationally recognized human rights. It must be dismantled.”