A video of North Korea sentenced two teenage boys to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean dramas has been released.
Usually, when a minor commits a crime, he is sent to a juvenile training center, not a regular prison, and the sentence is less than 10 years, so the sentence is interpreted as meaning that North Korea is strengthening punishment related to the South Korean issue.
According to a video titled “Lessons of Learning” in North Korea, which was obtained by the BBC and released on the 19th by South Korea’s Sand Research Institute, which works with North Korean defectors, two boys were pulled out to an outdoor theater in Pyongyang City’s youth park filled with hundreds of students.
Wearing gray prison uniforms with completely shaved heads were third-year students of a Pyongyang-based middle school who were sentenced to 12 years in prison for “watching and spreading Korean dramas.”
Their hands were handcuffed, and personal information such as the teacher in charge and the leader of the local youth alliance was released. The BBC said the families of the two boys were reportedly deported from Pyongyang.
According to the BBC, the video was taken from November 2021 to January 2022, during the height of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), considering that residents on the screen were wearing masks.
In the early 2000s, when South Korean culture flowed into North Korea in large numbers due to the South Korean government’s sunshine policy, North Korea reportedly did not pay much attention to the spread of South Korean culture.
A North Korean defector from Pyongyang quoted the BBC as saying, “Many residents at the time learned that South Korea was doing well thanks to this drama,” adding, “The biggest enemy in North Korea is South Korea, and the North Korean authorities are most afraid of South Korea.”
“If you are caught watching American dramas, you can receive bribes, but if you watch Korean dramas, you will be shot,” he said. “For North Koreans, Korean dramas are a medicine that makes them forget the difficult reality.”
North Korea announced the Reaction and Culture Disagreements Act in December 2020, the Youth Culture Security Act in August 2021, and the Pyongyang Culture Protection Act in January 2023.
In particular, North Korea says it is aimed at completely preventing the inflow and spread of anti-socialist ideology and culture and protecting ideology, spirit and culture
JULIE KIM
ASIA JOURNAL
