South Korea’s Unification Ministry has unveiled how a 22-year-old North Korean was publicly executed for watching and sharing South Korean films and music.
The case, detailed in the 2024 Report on North Korean Human Rights compiles testimonies from 649 North Korean defectors and highlights Pyongyang’s desperate attempts to stem the flow of outside information and culture.
According to an unnamed defector’s testimony, the young man from South Hwanghae province was publicly executed in 2022 for listening to 70 South Korean songs, watching three films, and distributing them – an offense which contravenes North Korean law adopted in 2020 that bans reactionary ideology and culture.
Other instances of crackdown include punishments for reactionary practices such as brides wearing white dresses, grooms carrying the bride, wearing sunglasses, or drinking alcohol from wine glasses – all seen as South Korean customs.
