North Korean Citizens Reportedly Executed for Watching K-Pop Music Videos
Described as “vicious cancer” by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
A Seoul-based NGO has reported that North Korean citizens are being executed for watching K-pop music videos produced in South Korea.
According to a report by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), seven individuals were killed for either watching or distributing content under the country’s leader Kim Jong-un. The information is based on a series of interviews with 683 North Korean defectors who have helped pinpoint locations where people are killed and buried after public executions. “The families of those being executed were often forced to watch the execution,” the document read. The TJWG report additionally noted that Kim has called K-pop a “vicious cancer” in the past.
The news comes after a North Korean man was sentenced to death for smuggling South Korea’s global hit Squid Game. A high school student involved in the distribution process was sentenced to life in prison, while six others were sentenced to five years of labor for watching the show.
