{"id":34235,"date":"2026-02-09T00:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/?p=34235"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:02:21","slug":"north-korea-executed-teens-for-listening-to-k-pop-watching-squid-game-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/?p=34235","title":{"rendered":"North Korea executed teens for listening to K-pop, watching \u2018Squid Game\u2019: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series \u2018Squid Game\u2019 and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers announced in early February.<br \/>\nAmnesty International cited testimony from an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed for specifically watching the popular survival drama series.<br \/>\nIt also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.<br \/>\n\u2018Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,\u2019 said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I didn\u2019t receive legal punishment because we had connections,\u2019 he told Amnesty International in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>Joonsik said three of his sisters\u2019 high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families\u2019 inability to pay bribes.<br \/>\n\u2018The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections,\u2019 said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International\u2019s deputy regional director.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This government\u2019s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings,\u2019 she added. \u2018People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.\u2019<br \/>\nSeveral defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.<br \/>\n\u2018When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,\u2019 said Kim Eunju, 40. \u2018People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It\u2019s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/godzillanewz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/k-pop-north-korean-800x450.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\">North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series \u2018Squid Game\u2019 and&#8230;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[230,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}