Strengthened Resident Control After China Trade Cutoff
About 30 Middle School Students Publicly Executed in July
A video has been released showing teenage girls in North Korea being arrested with handcuffs on both arms and subjected to harsh punishments, including the public disclosure of their parents' personal information. The crime of these girls was watching 'Korean dramas.'
On the 4th, KBS released educational videos for residents and soldiers produced in North Korea since May 2021. The videos produced by North Korean authorities total about 10 episodes, most of which are over two hours long.
The portion of the video released by KBS shows young women who appear to be teenagers sitting in a row. They all have their heads bowed deeply, and one student bursts into tears. On the screen, a subtitle appears with personal information, stating "Kim XX, student of Song Technical Advanced Middle School."
North Korean female students handcuffed and taken away for watching a Korean drama. [Image source=KBS capture]
As scenes of the girls swallowing their tears continue to play, a narration explains, "Several students who watched and distributed impure published propaganda materials, including the puppet (South Korean) television drama, were legally severely punished." After this, the girls' wrists were handcuffed.
Information about the families of those punished was also fully disclosed. Regarding the mother, harsh criticism was poured out, saying, "How well would it have been if the mother, who failed to properly educate her daughter and caused her to fall into the abyss of crime, had educated and trained the students she was responsible for?"
The video also emphasized the need to prevent the spread of Korean cultural content within North Korea. The narrator repeatedly stressed, "From soldiers and workers to families, the fight against this malignant tumor (Korean video content) must be regarded as a matter of life and death."
In North Korea, after COVID-19, trade with China was cut off, worsening the economic crisis, and as a result, control over residents reportedly intensified.
In fact, on July 10, TV Chosun reported that about 30 middle school students in North Korea were publicly executed recently just for watching Korean dramas. These middle school students were caught by authorities after picking up USB drives attached to large balloons sent by defector groups and watching the dramas, and were subsequently publicly shot.
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