K-pop executions in North Korea have drawn renewed international attention after human rights researchers reported that teenagers were put to death for consuming South Korean entertainment. According to testimony cited by Amnesty International in early February, authorities executed young people for listening to K-pop and watching the television series Squid Game. The accounts describe extreme punishments aimed at enforcing ideological isolation.
Amnesty International cited an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed specifically for watching Squid Game. The organization also documented forced labor sentences, public humiliation, and intimidation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country. These penalties reportedly fell hardest on families without money or political connections.
Kim Joonsik, 28, told Amnesty International he was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving North Korea in 2019. “Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” he said. “I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections.” Joonsik added that three of his sisters’ friends received multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean shows.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, said the regime uses fear to control information. “The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment,” she said. “This government’s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage.”
Other defectors described witnessing executions as teenagers. Kim Eunju, 40, said, “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”
