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Human-rights reporting and defector testimony allege that North Korean authorities have executed people for watching or distributing South Korean media, and some reported cases involve teenagers. The allegations are serious, but individual cases are not all independently verified, and there is no reliable public count of executions for these offenses.
What reports say happened
Several sources describe alleged executions connected to South Korean films, television or music. Their accounts differ in date, location, alleged conduct and how directly the source knew about the case.
- Yanggang Province, 2021: Amnesty International’s February 2026 report relays an interviewee’s account that people, including high-school students, were executed after Squid Game was released. The account was second-hand, passed through an escapee with family connections in the province; it is not an independently confirmed case record. Amnesty also cites separate Radio Free Asia reporting of an execution in North Hamgyong Province in 2021 for distributing the series. Amnesty International’s report.
- Hyesan, late 2022: The U.S. Department of State’s 2023 country report, published in 2024, cited credible eyewitness reports that two teenagers were publicly executed for watching and distributing South Korean movies. The State Department summary attributes the claim to eyewitness reporting; it does not provide a case record that resolves the broader verification limits described by Amnesty. U.S. Department of State report.
- Testimony about a 22-year-old: At a June 2025 public session hosted by the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, defector Kim Il-hyuk said an acquaintance was publicly executed by firing squad for distributing three South Korean dramas and 70 K-pop songs. Yonhap reported his testimony. It is a witness account, not an independently verified case record. Yonhap’s report.
These accounts concern different alleged offenses: watching, distributing, or both. They should not be collapsed into a single, fully verified account of who was executed, where, or under which law.
What can be verified—and what cannot
Amnesty International’s February 2026 report draws on 25 in-depth interviews with North Korean escapees conducted in 2025. Interviewees described executions, labour-camp sentences, public humiliation, searches and children being made to watch executions. Amnesty says severe restrictions on access to information prevent it from independently verifying the extensive use of the death penalty in North Korea. It also could not determine which laws were used in particular cases or whether executions described by interviewees were extrajudicial.
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That limitation does not make the allegations interchangeable with confirmed case records. It means readers should distinguish what a source reports from what it independently establishes. The sources cited here do not provide a reliable complete national dataset or a defensible comparison of executions by age or province.
There is broader evidence of increased use and legal availability of capital punishment. At a September 2025 briefing, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said its report found the death penalty was more widely allowed by law and implemented in practice, including for sharing foreign television dramas. OHCHR’s James Heenan said “the use of the death penalty had increased in the country since 2020.” The briefing cited eyewitness reports, but did not give a verified count of executions for K-pop or television offenses. UN Geneva briefing, September 12, 2025.
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What North Korea’s media law reportedly provides
Amnesty describes the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act as requiring five to 15 years of forced labour for watching or possessing South Korean dramas, films or music. According to Amnesty, the law allows severe sentences, including the death penalty, for distributing “large amounts” of content or organizing group viewings. This is Amnesty’s account of the law; the underlying Korean statute and a translation were not independently established in the reporting cited here.
The law described by Amnesty distinguishes viewing or possession from certain distribution and group-viewing conduct. That distinction matters: an allegation that someone watched a show is not the same claim as an allegation that the person distributed it, and neither automatically establishes the legal basis for a particular reported execution.
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How punishment is reportedly enforced
Amnesty’s interviewees described outcomes as unequal. They said wealth or official connections could help someone avoid punishment or secure release through bribes, while poorer people faced harsher penalties. These are interview accounts, not a quantified measure of enforcement nationwide. The report also describes searches attributed to a specialized unit known as the “109 Group.”
OHCHR’s 2025 briefing sets the allegations within a wider deterioration in freedom of expression and access to information, alongside increased surveillance and expanded use of capital punishment. That national context helps explain the risks reported by witnesses, but it is not proof of any one alleged execution.
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What the evidence supports
- Multiple human-rights reports and defector testimonies allege executions linked to consuming or distributing South Korean media.
- Some reported cases involve teenagers, but the available accounts are not uniformly documented or independently verifiable.
- Amnesty’s account of the 2020 law describes years of forced labour for watching or possessing South Korean media and possible capital punishment for certain distribution or group-viewing conduct.
- The sources do not establish a verified total of executions for K-pop or South Korean television.
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