A video released by an organization that helps North Korean defectors shows that authorities in Pyongyang sentenced two teenagers to 12 years of hard labor for watching K-pop music videos, Reuters reported.

Footage showing two 16-year-olds being sentenced in a public trial in Pyongyang has been released by the South-North Institute for Development (SAND). Reuters notes that it has not been able to independently confirm the authenticity of the recording, which was also picked up by the BBC.

North Korea has for years sentenced anyone caught watching entertainment programs produced in South Korea or imitating the conversation of South Koreans to harsh prison terms.

Kim Jong-un’s regime claims that this cultural war against foreign influence in society is aimed at combating “anti-revolutionary ideas”, passing a comprehensive law on the subject in 2020.

“Judging by the severe punishment, it would seem that this is being shown to people all over North Korea to warn them. If that is the case, it would seem that the lifestyle of South Korean culture is known to North Korean society,” Choi Kyung Hui, president of SAND and professor of political science at the University of Tokyo, said of the newly released footage. Media from Pyongyang.

“I believe the video was edited sometime around 2022 (…) Kim Jong-un is concerned that millennials and the younger Generation Z have changed their way of thinking. I think he (not Kim Jong Un) is trying to bring them back to the North Korean path,” he added.

North Korea executed young people who watched South Korean plays

In a video recorded by North Korean authorities, everyone present at the trial, which was held in an outdoor amphitheater, was seen wearing protective masks, suggesting that it was organized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the two convicted teenagers can count themselves somewhat lucky, as in December 2022 the Pyongyang regime publicly executed two other youths found guilty of viewing and distributing South Korean films.

In recent years, South Korean and Western movies, as well as music and TV shows, have spread across North Korea on easily concealed USB flash drives and SD cards.

Despite these strict measures, “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong-un is believed to be a big fan of Western movies and has amassed an impressive collection of Hollywood-produced feature films.

North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated countries, and its democratic southern neighbor are still legally at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.