BBC
By Sangmi Han
BBC Korean, Seoul
January 18, 2024
Rare footage obtained by BBC Korean shows North Korea publicly sentencing two teenage boys to 12 years of hard labour for watching K-dramas.
The footage, which appears to have been filmed in 2022, shows two 16-year-old boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students at an outdoor stadium.
It also shows uniformed officers reprimanding the boys for not “deeply reflecting on their mistakes”.
South Korean entertainment, including TV, is banned in the North.
Despite that, some are prepared to risk severe punishment to access K-dramas, which have a huge global audience.