Videos revealing the horrific human rights violations in North Korea have been made public.
Teenage girls were arrested and handcuffed for watching South Korean dramas, with their families’ identities publicly exposed for criticism.
In a North Korean educational video for its people obtained by KBS on September 4, women are shown sitting in the front row, heads bowed, while a girl standing at the microphone breaks down in tears. Her personal details, including that she is a 16-year-old student, were also revealed.
“Several students were severely punished under the law for watching and distributing impure materials like South Korean television dramas,” a narrator of the video said.
The video showed that teenage girls were publicly arrested and handcuffed simply for watching South Korean media.
“This is the first time I’ve seen school students punished like this,” said Jang Mi, a North Korean defector from 2020. “The fact that they were handcuffed is really shocking to me.”
KBS obtained over 10 internal North Korean videos through a source, totaling more than two hours of footage, most of which was made after May 2021. These videos were intended to educate civilians and soldiers, covering a range of issues such as economic crimes, murder, and declining military discipline, offering a glimpse into the changes within North Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The videos also reveal that North Korea has been conducting public trials and harsh punishments to prevent the influx of foreign culture, particularly from South Korea.
“We have conducted 16 public trials and four public criticisms to break the spirit of criminals,” a narrator of the video said.
In a clear violation of human rights, entire families were publicly criticized, with their personal information revealed, showing the regime’s severe methods of enforcing collective punishment.
The narrator added, “The mother failed to properly educate her daughter, leading her into a life of crime. Imagine how well she would have educated the students she was in charge of.”
As North Korea’s economic difficulties worsened after the suspension of trade with China during the pandemic, the regime intensified its control to prevent public unrest, further worsening human rights conditions.
In another video, North Korean soldiers were shown exchanging South Korean movies and dramas via mobile phones, even adopting South Korean slang.
The video shows a 20-year-old North Korean soldier confessing to watching South Korean content.
“I watched 15 American films, 17 South Korean films, and 127 episodes, as well as listened to over 160 South Korean songs on my mobile phone,” a young soldier surnamed Lee said.
The mother of another soldier tearfully recounts how her son was arrested for watching South Korean videos.
The mother said, “They told me my son was arrested for watching impure videos. I wept, thinking, ‘I didn’t give birth to a son, but to a traitor!’”
The videos show soldiers hiding South Korean media on their phones and exchanging text messages using South Korean terms, much to the regime’s frustration.
“Soldiers are buying, watching, storing, and distributing impure South Korean media through mobile phones, even using South Korean slang in their messages,” a narrator of the video said.
The regime emphasizes that the spread of South Korean culture is a life-or-death issue and must be stopped.
“Soldiers, workers, and their families must see this fight against this malignant tumor as a matter of life and death,” the narrator explained.
The footage, produced by a military education film studio in 2020, highlights the widespread penetration of South Korean media within the North Korean military, to the point where entire videos were made about it.
“The focus on mobile phone usage is something new, and it’s surprising to hear terms like ‘blind date’ being used in North Korea,” said Chung Han-ul, a former North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea.
As mobile phone usage increases among soldiers and their loyalty wanes due to poor conditions, the spread of South Korean culture within the North Korean military is expected to grow.
BY YOUNGNAM KIM [kim.youngnam@koreadaily.com]
