North Korean executed for listening to South Korean music
The man from South Hwanghae province was charged with violating the North Korean anti-reactionary ideology and culture law of 2020
A 22-year-old man was recently publicly executed in North Korea in 2022 for listening to K-pop Korean music and watching South Korean films, as documented by South Korea’s unification ministry. It was recorded in the North Korean Human Rights 2024 Report, which reveals the severity of North Korean policies. The man from South Hwanghae province was charged with violating the North Korean anti-reactionary ideology and culture law of 2020. This law is also part of a number of recent measures undertaken by the North Korean regime to protect its citizens from what it deems immoral western culture.
The crackdown on South Korean entertainment has long been a policy in North Korea, beginning with former leader Kim Jong-il and intensifying under his son, Kim Jong-un. The regime views the spread of South Korean pop culture as a significant threat to its ideology, which demands unwavering loyalty to the Kim dynasty that has ruled since North Korea’s founding in 1948.
The report from South Korea’s unification ministry, drawing on testimonies from 649 North Korean survivors who got out of the country, reveals the regime’s harsh measures. “After watching Korean dramas, many young people wonder, ‘Why do we have to live like this?’ I thought I’d rather die than live in North Korea,” said one North Korean survivor while explaining the harsh laws made in North Korea.
The Impact of Korean Music on North Korean Society
North Korea’s authorities are well known for persecuting’reactionary’ actions severely. These prohibitions include ‘capitalist’ fashion accessories that include jeans, T-shirts with scripts in foreign languages, and hairstyles that are not indigenous. Also, activities such as brides wearing white, grooms carrying the bride, wearing sunglasses, or using wine glasses for spirits to drink alcohol also attract a ban. Mobile phones are often searched for signs of operating influence in the form of contact names, tone, and language, including SL, which they regard as South Korean. However, even with such rigorous checkups, the influence of South Korea’s cultures penetrates North Korea via various channels, which may not be socially accepted means.
In a statement to The Guardian, a survivor highlighted the swift impact of South Korean culture on North Korean youth, saying, “The influence of South Korean culture on North Korea is incredibly rapid. Young people eagerly adopt and emulate South Korean trends, showing a deep fondness for anything South Korean.”
Even though North Korea has mainly sealed off its border with China since the early outbreak of COVID-19, news and information somehow enter the country; therefore, the regime would not stop trying to punish those who access foreign broadcasts and media.
Globally, North Korea doesn’t acknowledge the concept of human rights assertions, regarding them as fabricated stories meant to dismantle the government. However, the real picture of the opposite holds true, as the different refugees’ accounts and other published accounts show just how ruthlessly the regime would enforce it. In recent years, it has dispatched thousands of balloons into the South carrying garbage in response to the South Korean leafleting with anti-North tracts, dollars, and USBs with K-industrial products.
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