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 South Korea’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 former leader Kim Jong-il to shield citizens from the “malign influence” of Western culture and its allies. This ban was further tightened under his son, Kim Jong-un, who adopted a new law in 2020 prohibiting “reactionary ideology and culture.”
North Korea has rejected criticisms of its grave human rights violations, calling them part of a conspiracy to overthrow its leadership.
According to the report, North Koreans are routinely subjected to mobile phone inspections for contact name spellings, expressions, and slang terms.
“North Korea does not tolerate pluralism, bans independent media, civil society organizations, 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 in their 2023 world report.
