SEOUL - In a recent release by the SAND Institute, an organization dedicated to assisting North Korean defectors, startling video footage has emerged showcasing the public sentencing of two 16-year-olds in Pyongyang. The teenagers received a harsh punishment of 12 years of hard labor for allegedly watching K-pop and South Korean movies, as revealed in the footage whose authenticity remains unverified by Reuters.
The South and North Development (SAND) Institute provided the footage, raising concerns about the stringent measures imposed by North Korean authorities on citizens enjoying South Korean entertainment. The authoritarian regime, under a "anti-reactionary thought" law implemented in 2020, has consistently doled out severe sentences for those indulging in foreign influences.
Choi Kyong-hui, President of SAND and a defector from North Korea, speculates that the punishment's severity aims to serve as a deterrent and suggests a growing infiltration of South Korean culture in North Korean society. Expressing concerns about changing mindsets among Millennials and Gen Z in North Korea, Choi believes that leader Kim Jong Un is striving to revert the youth's thinking to align with traditional North Korean values.
The video, reportedly edited around 2022, portrays a public trial where the handcuffed students, clad in grey scrubs, face an audience of approximately 1,000 peers in an amphitheater. The footage, featuring all individuals, including the convicted teenagers, donning face masks, indicates its capture during the COVID-19 pandemic. The students were purportedly convicted of watching and spreading South Korean movies, music, and music videos over a three-month period.
The narrator in the video asserts, "They were seduced by foreign culture... and ended up ruining their lives," as the scenes shift to depict young girls being handcuffed and women in Pyongyang wearing South Korean fashion and hairstyles. The incident highlights the ongoing ideological battle within North Korea, where the reclusive regime strives to maintain control over cultural influences, contrasting with the vibrant pop culture of democratic South Korea. The two Koreas, technically still at war since the 1950-53 conflict, remain divided by the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ).