They saw the much-loved K-dramas produced in Seoul, those TV series dedicated to teenagers that tell romantic or dramatic stories.

For this reason, two 16-year-olds from North Korea were sentenced to 12 years of forced labor.

Rare footage obtained by the Korean BBC that appears to have been shot in 2022 shows the two boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students in an outdoor stadium. Some uniformed officers scold the boys for not "reflecting deeply on their mistakes."

South Korean entertainment, TV and music, is strictly prohibited in Pyongang, but some kids are willing to risk punishment to gain access to K-dramas, which now have a large global audience.

But how did the BBC obtain the footage? It was provided to him by South and North Development (Sand), a research institute that works with Northern defectors.

The clip was allegedly distributed in North Korea for ideological education and to warn citizens not to watch "decadent recordings." A background voice states that "the rotten culture of the puppet regime has also spread among teenagers." And speaking of the two boys, "they are only 16 years old, but they have ruined their future", he adds.

In the past, minors who broke the law in this way were sent to child labor camps instead of behind bars, and the punishment was usually less than five years. In 2020, however, Pyongyang enacted a law to make watching or distributing South Korean entertainment punishable by death.

(Unioneonline/L)

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