Chilling Footage Reveals North Korea’s Brutal Punishments to Minors Watching South Korean TV

What happens if someone watches South Korean dramas in North Korea? The answer lies in the tearful faces of teenage girls in handcuffs and the public shaming of their parents for raising them poorly.

On Wednesday, KBS aired footage produced by North Korean authorities to warn residents and soldiers against watching foreign media. The video features distressing scenes of teenage girls in handcuffs, with one girl sobbing while identified as Kim ○○, a 16-year-old student at Songshin Technical High School. As the girls cry in front of the microphone, a narration states, “We have legally punished several students who watched and distributed subversive materials, including South Korean television dramas.”

The video also criticizes the families of the accused, suggesting that a mother who fails to prevent her child from engaging in such activities is unfit to educate her children properly. 

Analysts suggest that as the economic crisis deepened due to the cessation of trade with China during the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korean authorities intensified control to prevent unrest among residents, worsening the human rights situation.

A military educational video produced by the Military Science Education Film Studio in 2020 also surfaced. This footage shows a North Korean soldier in his twenties confessing to watching South Korean content. He stated, “I watched 15 American movies and 17 South Korean films on my mobile phone, along with 160 South Korean songs.”

Another soldier’s mother wept as she recounted her son’s arrest for watching South Korean videos while in the military. She said, “I heard my son got caught watching subversive recordings.” She wailed again, saying, “Who I’ve given birth to was not my son but a traitor!”

North Korean authorities have warned against the widespread consumption of South Korean media, stating, “We are witnessing a troubling trend where individuals purchase, watch, store, and distribute subversive materials, including South Korean videos, on their mobile phones. Furthermore, they use contaminated South Korean slang in their communications. It is imperative for everyone—soldiers, workers, and families alike—to view this battle against these malignant influences as a matter of life and death.”

The regime perceives foreign content, especially South Korean media, as a direct threat to its authority. In response, North Korea enacted the Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Exclusion Act in December 2020. This stringent law imposes the death penalty for those who distribute South Korean videos and can result in up to 15 years in prison for those found viewing such content.