North Korea Executes Schoolchildren for Watching 'Squid Game'

In North Korea, watching South Korean dramas such as 'Squid Game' or listening to BTS music can result in public execution, forced labor, or severe humiliation, according to Amnesty International, which cited interviews with 25 defectors from the country.

Reports indicate that three high school students were executed for watching 'Squid Game.' Others received long prison sentences. The punishment is often financially sensitive, as families can avoid execution by paying bribes of up to $10,000.

This is all in accordance with the 2020 law on the suppression of 'reactionary thought.' It prescribes forced labor for five to ten years for maintaining South Korean content, with the death penalty for distributing it.

Despite the risks, foreign television series and music are massively imported into the country on flash drives.

'When we were 16 or 17, studying in high school, they would take us and show us everything that led to executions. This is ideological indoctrination. If you watch, the same will happen to you,' said defector Kim Eun-jun.