"North Korea cracks down on soldiers who watched Korean and American dramas... Videos of punishment scenes are used as educational material"

RFA obtains and releases ideological education video for North Korean soldiers

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Eunjung Lee = It has been revealed that the North Korean military authorities are cracking down on ideology by using videos of crackdowns and punishments on soldiers who watched external videos such as South Korean dramas and movies.

An ideological education video for North Korean soldiers released by the U.S. Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the 12th included a scene where soldiers and workers were punished for watching external videos in the unit.

RFA reported that this video was produced as ideological education material for North Korean soldiers and was known to have been produced around 2023.

The debater in the video said, "The authors who are so mired in imperialist ideology and culture and lifestyle should be immediately executed," and added, "I strongly propose in the name of all military employees that they be tracked down to the end, caught, and punished mercilessly." They even advocated punishment for family members by association.

Circumstances were also captured where people were watching ‘impure recordings’ such as Korean movies and dramas at military bases where cell phone possession was prohibited.

The video explained, “The party has already emphasized on numerous occasions that soldiers should not use social cell phones (cell phones),” and that “soldiers purchased, watched, stored, and distributed impure recordings through social cell phones.”

The video also included scenes of confiscated cell phones and soldiers being arrested and writing reflections in a public court.

The commentator criticized, “Watching impure recordings is a poisonous and useless plant that ruins not only one’s own destiny but also the situation of one’s family and relatives.”

According to the judgment released in the video, a case where a person was sentenced to two years of hard labor for viewing external videos is confirmed.

The video added, "The crime of watching adulterated video recordings is not different from other crimes in nature," and added, "Several criminals have been sentenced to more than five years of hard labor, and because the crime of viewing adulterated video recordings is a serious crime, even a large-scale order is not permitted in executing the judgment."

North Korea successively introduced the Act on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture (2020), the Act on Guaranteeing Youth Culture (2021), and the Act on Protecting Pyongyang Cultural Language (2023), thereby providing a legal basis for punishing residents who come into contact with outside culture.

In 2023, Daily NK, a media outlet specializing in North Korea, also cited a source inside North Korea at the 'North Korea Human Rights Mutual Dialogue' debate and stated that the North Korean regime was carrying out public executions by applying the Act on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture.