North Korean Teens Sentenced to Hard Labor for Watching K-Dramas and K-Pop

A rare video from North Korea shows two teenagers being publicly sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean TV dramas, shedding light on the reclusive state's strict control over its citizens' access to foreign culture. The video, obtained by NBC News from the SAND Institute, highlights the regime's crackdown on South Korean entertainment, with the narrator condemning the spread of "rotten puppet regime's culture" to teenagers. The number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea has tripled since 2021, while the North Korean leader recently announced the country would no longer seek reunification with the South. The video reinforces a law enacted in 2020, allowing officials to sentence violators to capital punishment for importing or distributing materials showing South Korean culture.