People caught consuming South Korean entertainment in North Korea are facing extreme punishment, including public execution, according to new findings by Amnesty International.
A new Amnesty report says North Korean authorities are executing citizens for watching popular South Korean dramas such as Squid Game, listening to K-pop artists like BTS, or engaging with any foreign media deemed “reactionary”. Even children are reportedly subjected to harsh penalties.
According to testimonies from people who escaped the country, schoolchildren are sometimes forced to witness executions as a warning against consuming banned content. While wealthier families or those with political connections may bribe officials to avoid the harshest penalties, poorer citizens reportedly face the most severe consequences.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director, described the situation as deeply repressive, saying: “Watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life, unless you can afford to pay.”
She added that the system effectively criminalises access to information while allowing corruption to flourish: “The authorities criminalise access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections.”
Despite the risks, South Korean media continues to circulate inside the country. Dramas such as Crash Landing on You, which itself is partly set in North Korea, are said to be widely watched in secret.
Amnesty cited interviews claiming that people caught watching Squid Game or listening to K-pop had been executed. One particularly severe case dates to 2021, when a student who smuggled Squid Game into North Korea from China was sentenced to death by firing squad.
That case was also reported by Radio Free Asia, which said the student had sold copies to fellow pupils. According to the report, one buyer received a life sentence, while others who watched the show were sent to hard labour camps for several years.
Observers say the themes of Squid Game, extreme inequality, debt and survival under brutal rules, resonate strongly with people living under the rule of Kim Jong Un.
The crackdown is enforced under North Korea’s “Law on the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture”, introduced in 2020, which targets foreign books, films and music, with particular focus on content from South Korea.
Amnesty warns that the law has turned the country into what it describes as an “ideological cage”, where access to outside information is treated as a capital crime rather than a basic human right.
