A chilling video showing the apparent conviction of two 16-year-old North Korean boys to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean soap operas recently went viral online.
In a video obtained by the BBC, two young boys in grey uniforms can be seen on a stage surrounded by hundreds of people as they receive their sentence for the “horrible” crime of watching and distributing K-dramas from the “puppet” South Korean regime. All manner of South Korean entertainment, including television programs, is forbidden in South Korea, and according to a law enacted by the Hermit Kingdom in 2020, watching or distributing South Korean entertainment is punishable by serious prison time or even death. But some people are still willing to risk their lives for a glimpse into the neighboring country.
