North Korea: when K-pop leads to the firing squad
Executed for broadcasting K-pop songs: this is the fate that was reserved for a 22-year-old North Korean farm worker, says the South Korean daily The Korea Herald, the day after Seoul published the “North Korea Human Rights Report 2024”.
In South Korea, the document is rarely covered by the local press, with the exception of English-speaking Korean newspapers – a sign of the rather international vocation of this document. The Korea Times summarizes the main points :
“North Korea has stepped up its surveillance and punishment of its people, particularly young people, by implementing three so-called ‘evil’ laws to prevent North Koreans from accessing outside information.”
The term “evil” comes from the South Korean Unification Ministry, which compiled this report based on the testimonies of 141 North Korean defectors. And it’s the first time, explains the Korea Heraldthat the South Korean government publicly confirms that the Kim Jong-un regime carried out public executions under the 2020 Law on “the rejection of reactionary ideology and culture.”
“The puppet style”
This law provides for a penalty of up to ten years of forced labor for
