"North Korean Teens Sentenced to Hard Labor for Watching K-Drama"
Rare footage obtained by BBC Korean shows two North Korean teenagers being publicly sentenced to 12 years of hard labour for watching South Korean TV shows, with the punishment being a result of Pyongyang's crackdown on the spread of K-dramas and K-pop, which it sees as a threat to its ideology. The video, provided by a research institute working with North Korean defectors, reveals the harsh consequences faced by those caught accessing South Korean entertainment, including a law enacted in 2020 that makes watching or distributing such content punishable by death. Despite the ban, some North Koreans continue to risk severe punishment to access K-dramas, which offer an escape from their difficult reality.