North Korea Executes Citizens for Watching ‘Squid Game’, Listening to K-Pop, Says Amnesty International Report

Mumbai, February 5: People in North Korea, including schoolchildren, are being publicly executed, sent to labour camps or brutally humiliated for watching South Korean television shows or listening to K-pop, according to new testimonies collected by Amnesty International.

Based on 25 in-depth interviews with North Korean escapees conducted in 2025, the report reveals a climate of fear where consuming South Korean culture is treated as a grave crime. Interviewees said watching popular South Korean dramas or listening to K-pop can lead to extreme punishments, including death, especially for those without money or political connections. North Korea Executes Citizens for Sharing South Korean Dramas and Foreign Films, Tightens Surveillance and Punishments Under Harsh New Laws, Says UN Human Rights Report .

Witnesses told Amnesty that dramas such as Crash Landing on You, Descendants of the Sun and the global hit Squid Game have triggered executions. One escapee said high school students were executed for watching Squid Game, while Radio Free Asia separately documented a 2021 execution in North Hamgyong Province linked to distributing the series. Kim Jong Un Orders Capital Punishment for ‘Corrupt’ Officials Who ‘Failed’ To Prevent Flooding and Landslides in North Korea: Report.

Listening to K-pop is also heavily targeted. Interviewees cited cases where teenagers were punished for listening to songs by BTS, with wealthier families often able to avoid harsh penalties by paying bribes.

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director, said the testimonies expose a system of “repression layered with corruption”, where authorities criminalise access to information while allowing officials to profit from fear.

“Watching a South Korean TV show can cost you your life - unless you can afford to pay,” she said, adding that the system most severely impacts those without wealth or connections.

Amnesty noted that the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act formally criminalised South Korean content, prescribing five to 15 years of forced labour for watching or possessing it, and even the death penalty for large-scale distribution or group viewings.

Despite the risks, foreign media remains widely consumed. Dramas and music are smuggled in on USB drives from China and watched on “notetels” - notebook computers with built-in televisions. Former residents said enforcement is carried out by the feared “109 Group,” a special unit that conducts warrantless searches of homes and mobile phones nationwide.

Several interviewees recalled being forced to attend public executions as children as part of ideological education. “They execute people to brainwash and educate us,” one former resident said.

Amnesty International has called on the North Korean authorities to dismantle what it described as an arbitrary system built on fear and corruption, warning that it violates fundamental principles of justice and internationally recognised human rights.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 05, 2026 10:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).