North Korea | Teenagers ‘executed for watching Squid Game’ as regime wages war on K-Drama and K-Pop

People in North Korea, including schoolchildren, are being publicly executed, sent to labour camps or subjected to brutal public humiliation for watching South Korean television shows or listening to K-pop, according to new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International.

North Koreans who fled the country told Amnesty that watching globally popular South Korean dramas – including Crash Landing on You, Descendants of the Sun and Squid Game – or listening to South Korean pop music can lead to the most extreme punishments, including death. Those without money or connections face the harshest consequences.

Interviewees described a climate of fear in which South Korean culture is treated as a serious crime, while wealthier families can sometimes avoid punishment by paying bribes to corrupt officials.

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director, said:

“These testimonies show how North Korea is enforcing dystopian laws that mean watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life – unless you can afford to pay

“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.

“This government's fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings. People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.

“This completely arbitrary system, built on fear and corruption, violates fundamental principles of justice and internationally recognised human rights. It must be dismantled.”

Executions linked to popular South Korean programmes

Interviewees said that newer South Korean content was reaching North Korea faster than in previous decades. They mentioned popular South Korean dramas from the 2010s, including Crash Landing on You, noted for its North Korea setting, and Descendants of the Sun, which features military themes.

One interviewee reported hearing from an escapee with family connections in Yanggang Province that people, including high school students, were executed for watching Squid Game. Radio Free Asia separately documented an execution in North Hamgyong Province in 2021 for distributing the series.

Taken together, these reports from different provinces suggest multiple executions related to the shows.

Teenagers punished for K-pop

Interviewees also said that listening to South Korean pop music is targeted by authorities. They mentioned K-pop songs, including those by BTS. In 2021, The Korea Times reported that North Korean teenagers were caught and punished for listening to BTS

Laws criminalising freedom of expression

Amnesty International conducted 25 in-depth individual interviews with North Korean escapees in 2025. The group included 11 individuals who fled North Korea between 2019 and 2020, with the most recent departure in June 2020. Most were aged between 15 and 25 at the time of their escape. Covid-19 border closures have made escapes extremely rare since 2020.

North Korea has long maintained one of the world’s most restrictive information environments. Testimonies gathered by Amnesty International describe how accessing foreign culture or information was actively punished, including by execution, at least before 2020.

Workers watch it openly, party officials watch it proudly, security agents watch it secretly, and police watch it safely. Everyone knows everyone watches, including those who do the crackdowns.

The introduction of the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, which defines South Korean content as “rotten ideology that paralyzes the people's revolutionary sense”, mandates between five and 15 years of forced labour for watching or possessing South Korean dramas, films or music. The law prescribes heavy sentences, including the death penalty, for distributing “large amounts” of content or organising group viewings.

Despite the risks, interviewees described the consumption of South Korean and other foreign media as widespread. Dramas, films and music are smuggled into North Korea on USB drives from China and watched on “notetels” – notebook computers with built-in televisions.

‘People sell their houses to get out of camps’

North Koreans who fled the country between 2012 and 2020 told Amnesty International that people commonly watched South Korean TV knowing the risks, but that punishment depended heavily on money.

"People are caught for the same act, but punishment depends entirely on money," said Choi Suvin, 39, who left North Korea in 2019. "People without money sell their houses to gather 5,000 or 10,000 USD to pay to get out of the re-education camps."

Kim Joonsik, 28, said he was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019, but avoided punishment because his family had connections.

"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."

He said three of his sisters’ high school friends received years-long labour camp sentences in the late 2010s for watching South Korean dramas because their families could not afford bribes.

‘Everyone knows everyone watches’

Fifteen interviewees from different regions mentioned the “109 Group”, a specialised law enforcement unit that conducts warrantless home and street searches of bags and mobile phones, indicating a nationwide, systematic approach.

One interviewee recalled members of the unit saying:

"We don't want to punish you harshly, but we need to bribe our bosses to save our own lives."

Another described the system as an open secret:

"Workers watch it openly, party officials watch it proudly, security agents watch it secretly, and police watch it safely. Everyone knows everyone watches, including those who do the crackdowns.”

‘They execute people to brainwash and educate us’

Interviewees described being forced, as schoolchildren, to attend public executions as part of their “ideological education”.

Choi Suvin witnessed a public execution in Sinuiju in 2017 or 2018 of someone accused of distributing foreign media.

"Authorities told everyone to go, and tens of thousands of people from Sinuiju city gathered to watch," she said. "They execute people to brainwash and educate us."

Others described schools systematically ordering students to attend executions.

"When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything," said Kim Eunju, 40. "People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It's ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too."

Source: Amnesty International, Staff, February 4, 2026

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