Death Penalty News

South Korean TV shows, Japanese porn, and Hollywood films were found on the devices of high-ranking officers. North Korea has punished more than 10 military officials after they were caught in possession of “impure” video files–South Korean TV shows, Japanese porn and Hollywood films–as a crackdown on illegal foreign media shifted to focus on high-ranking men in uniform, military sources told RFA. Though citizens of North Korea are forbidden to watch or listen to media from outside the country, foreign TV shows, music, and movies are smuggled in on easily concealable SD cards and USB flash drives. They are then distributed widely among the populace through the black market. Nervous about all this exposure to outside information, Pyongyang in December 2020 passed the draconian Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture Law, which carries a maximum penalty of death for watching, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, particularly from South Korea and the U.S. To en...

In Squid Game‘s first season, a mysterious organization recruits 456 broke contestants to play children’s games to win approximately $38.5 million. Losers, however, receive the death penalty for their punishment. Netflix’s most-viewed series ever, Squid Game, is slated for a second season according to CEO and chief content officer, Ted Sarandos. This is no surprise, considering that Netflix subscribers streamed 1.65 billion hours of the show only 28 days after its release. Sarandos declared that the Squid Game universe “has just begun” and believes that the South Korean thriller/drama has potential for reaching media outside the streaming service such as games, merchandise and live experiences. Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had previously said that he has a vision for season 2. “There’s been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season. So I almost feel like you leave us no choice,” he said. “But I will say there will indeed be a second season. It’s in my ...

North Korea has tried to stop leaks to the outside world about its public executions in recent years, suggesting Pyongyang may be responding to international scrutiny of its human rights record, a Seoul-based research group has said. The Transitional Justice Working Group analysed satellite imagery and collected testimonies of 23 public executions during the era of Kim Jong Un, who took power a decade ago following the death of his father in December 2011. North Korean escapees said executions were carried out at closely monitored sites with authorities keeping a close eye to ensure no information gets out, the TJWG said in a report released Wednesday. "In recent years, North Korea appears to be strategically selecting places away from the border area to carry out these killings," said the NGO, which has a stated non-partisan mission of documenting human rights abuses and seeking justice for victims. "Monitoring and control of the assembled audience at these events is ti...

A new report from a human rights group has found North Korea has publicly executed at least seven people for watching or distributing K-pop videos [ K-pop: short for Korean popular music, is a genre of music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. - Wikipedia] in the last decade, according to The New York Times . The report was released Wednesday by the Transitional Justice Working Group, and it was based on interviews with almost 700 defectors from North Korea.  The report pointed to testimonies of public executions under North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and said that one of the most common offenses was "watching or distributing South Korean videos." RELATED |  North Korea | Student who allegedly brought digital copy of Squid Game back from China sentenced to death RELATED | 'Squid Game' is even being watched in North Korea; viewers could face hard labor, death penalty RELATED | North Korea | Anyone caught with media from South Korea, the U.S. or...

A North Korean nan is to be executed for bringing back a copy of Netflix's Squid Game into the country.  The smuggler, a student, is said to have returned from China with a digital version of the hit South Korean series stored on a hidden USB flash drive. But after selling copies to several people including fellow students he was caught out by the country's surveillance services. It is understood he will now be executed by firing squad - one of the grim methods by which characters in the series are also killed. RELATED | 'Squid Game' is even being watched in North Korea; viewers could face hard labor, death penalty It is believed that the arrests took place in the country's North Hamgyong province which borders with China over the last week. Radio Free Asia reported that one student who bought a copy of the drive has since received a life sentence, while six others who watched the show have been sentenced to five years hard labor. North Korea has a strict ban on mat...

Residents of the reclusive country say Squid Game is being smuggled in via USB drives, according to Radio Free Asia. Last month North Korean propaganda decried Squid Game, Netflix's latest smash hit series, as an indictment on South Korea's capitalist system. It's slightly embarrassing, then, that some North Koreans are watching the show in spite of the government's best attempts to censor and block cultural exports from the south. "Squid Game has been able to enter the country on memory storage devices such as USB flash drives and SD cards, which are smuggled in by ship and then make their way inland," a North Korean resident told Radio Free Asia, a US-funded radio service in Asia. RELATED |  North Korea | Anyone caught with media from South Korea, the U.S. or Japan now faces death penalty The resident said Squid Game speaks to both North Korean's (few) wealthy citizens, who are themselves trapped in a life-or-death situation where the spectre of imprison...