Report: NK Publicly Executes Those Who View Outside Media

North Korea is reportedly executing people found to possess videos from its enemy to the south, including episodes of Squid Game. A year-old law states those who possess, watch, or distribute media from capitalist countries, including South Korea and the US, can be put to death, reports Radio Free Asia. Last month, a law enforcement source in North Korea’s northernmost North Hamgyong province told the outlet that a man was executed for selling smuggled copies of Netflix's Squid Game to high school students. One student received a life sentence while six others were sentenced to five years of hard labor, per the outlet. Such executions aren't new.

A report published Wednesday by Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group looks at "how state killing practices have shifted" under Kim Jong Un. It's based on interviews with 683 North Korean defectors since 2015 and found evidence of 23 public executions during Kim's decade-long rule. Seven of those executions served as punishment for watching or distributing videos from South Korea, all but one of which were carried out in Hyesan, Ryanggang province, between 2012 and 2014, per the New York Times. According to TJWG's report, citizens were called to observe the executions by firing squad, which involved three soldiers killing each individual with nine bullets total as family members were forced to watch.

Hyesan, a city of 200,000 on the border with China, is "the main gateway for outside information, including South Korean entertainment stored on computer memory sticks and bootlegged across the border," per the Times, which notes radios and televisions in North Korea only air government broadcasts. There have been reports of public executions for watching and distributing South Korean videos in other parts of North Korea, however. Seoul-based website Daily NK reported that two people, including an army officer, were executed for such a crime elsewhere this year. TJWG believes executions are also taking place indoors and in secret. (More North Korea stories.)