North Korea ‘Publicly Executes 22-Year-Old Man For Listening To K-Pop’
According to a report by The Guardian on the 2024 Report on North Korean Human Rights, a young man from South Hwanghae province was executed in 2022 after being found guilty of listening to 70 South Korean songs, watching three films, and sharing them.
Details of the case were released in the 2024 Report on North Korean Human Rights by South Korea’s unification ministry on Thursday, which included testimonies from 649 North Korean defectors.
According to one of the testimonies from an unnamed source, 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.
North Korea
North Korea publicly executed a 22-year-old citizen for listening to and sharing K-pop music and films as part of Pyongyang’s ruthless crackdown on outside information and culture.
The man from the Hermit Kingdom’s South Hwanghae province was publicly executed in 2022 for listening to 70 South Korean songs, watching three films, and distributing them, according to testimonies published in the North Korean Human Rights report released by the South’s Unification Ministry on Thursday, June 27.
The report, a compilation of testimonies from 649 North Korean defectors – highlights Pyongyang’s brutal crackdown on Western influence and information flow into the isolated country.
The country’s ban on K-pop was implemented under the former leader, Kim Jong-il to shield citizens from the “malign influence” of Western culture and its allies.
It was further tightened under Jong-il’s son, Kim Jong-un, who adopted a new law for the North in 2020, which prohibits “reactionary ideology and culture”.
The North has rejected criticisms of the government’s grave violation of human rights, calling it a part of a conspiracy to overthrow the leadership.
According to the report, North Koreans are routinely subjected to mobile phone inspections for contact name spellings, expressions, and slang terms.
“The government does not tolerate pluralism, bans independent media, civil society organisations and trade unions, and systematically denies all basic liberties, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and freedom of religion and belief,” Human Rights Watch said about North Korea in their world report in 2023.
The report also detailed extensive efforts by North Korean authorities to control outside information flow, with a specific focus on youth.
According to the US government-funded Radio Free Asia, the regime was cracking down on “capitalist” fashion and hairstyles, targeting skinny jeans and T-shirts bearing foreign words, as well as dyed or long hair.
