North Korean authorities have allegedly executed two minors for the crime of viewing and distributing South Korean films, according to a report on Friday.
Sources who witnessed the alleged execution in October told Radio Free Asia that the teenagers were 16 and 17 years old.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, on February 28, 2022.
(Korea Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
A resident told the station’s Korean service that they were told that “those who watch or distribute South Korean movies and dramas, and those who disturb the social order by killing other people, will not be pardoned and will be sentenced to The maximum penalty: death.
Residents of Hyesan, where the executions allegedly took place, gathered in groups to watch authorities bring the teenagers in front of the public, sentence them to death and shoot them, the source said.
NORTH KOREA REPORTEDLY FIRES 130 ARTILLERY ROUNDS, IN VIOLATION OF INTER-KOREAN AGREEMENT
The authorities had reportedly warned weeks before the execution that those distributing foreign media would face harsh punishment.
A human rights group reported last year that North Korea has executed at least seven people in the past decade for watching or distributing K-pop videos.
US FLYS SUPERSONIC BOMBERS IN RESPONSE TO LAUNCH OF NORTH KOREA’S NEW ICBM
The previous year, the North Korean government announced that anyone in possession of South Korean media or art would face up to 15 tears in prison over a new anti-reactionary thought law.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In August 2021, several teenagers caught watching the South Korean drama “Crash Landing on You” were sentenced to prison, according to the Daily NK, a Seoul-based publication that focuses on North Korean news.
