North Korean Man Executed Publicly For Listening To K-Pop

A 2024 North Korea human rights report released by South Korea's Unification Ministry claims a 22-year-old Korean man was publicly executed for watching and sharing South Korean films and music, The Guardian reports .

The publication notes that this case highlights Pyongyang’s “desperate attempts” to stop the flow of external information and culture.

The report notes that the description of the executed North Korean's case is based on the testimony of 649 defectors from the DPRK. According to one of them, a young man from South Hwanghae Province was publicly executed in 2022 for listening to 70 songs and watching three South Korean films, as well as for distributing them.

The North Korean's actions violated a law passed in the DPRK in 2020 that bans "reactionary ideology and culture."

The report also details efforts by North Korean authorities to control external information flows, primarily aimed at young people.

Examples of such repressions in the document include punishments for brides wearing white dresses, drinking alcohol from wine glasses, and wearing sunglasses, all of which are considered in the DPRK as South Korean "reactionary" customs.

As The Guardian notes, the ban on K-pop is part of a campaign to protect North Koreans from the "pernicious" influence of Western culture, which began under the country's former leader Kim Jong-il and has intensified under his son Kim Jong-un.

Despite these tough measures, North Korean defectors say the influence of South Korean culture is likely unstoppable. A young woman who defected from North Korea said that young people “follow and copy South Korean culture, and they really love everything South Korean.”

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