by Minwoo Park and Jimin Jung
SEOUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Two 16-year-old North Korean teenagers were sentenced in Pyongyang to 12 years of forced labor for watching South Korean films, series and music videos, according to a video of the trial apparently made. it in 2022 by the North Korean authorities and broadcast by the BBC.
The video, which appears to serve as a warning to young people in North Korea, where South Korean television shows and entertainment are banned, was provided to the BBC by a research institute working with North Korean defectors. Koreans, the Institute for South and North Development (SAND).
In the images – which Reuters was unable to authenticate – we see the two teenagers, handcuffed and in gray coats, judged during a public hearing in an amphitheater where a thousand students are present, all wearing masks. , which suggests that the video was filmed during the Covid pandemic.
“Judging by the severity of the sentence, it appears that this is intended to be shown to North Koreans as a warning. If so, it demonstrates that South Korean culture is prevalent in society North Korean,” explains Choi Kyong-hui, president of SAND and doctor of political science at the University of Tokyo, who left North Korea in 2001.
“I think this video was edited around 2022. (…) What is embarrassing for (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-un is that young people from generations Y and Z have changed the way they think. I think he’s trying to bring them back to the North Korean way of life,” he adds.
The two teenagers were found guilty of watching and broadcasting films, videos, clips, including K-pop and K-dramas, for three months.
In 2020, North Korea enacted a law “against reactionary thoughts” which prohibits consumption of and access to foreign content. Any offense is punishable by imprisonment in a labor camp. (Reporting by Minwoo Park and Jimin Jung; written by Joyce Lee; French version Diana Mandiá)
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