Overview
- Interviewees said penalties range from public humiliation and years in forced labor to execution for watching banned TV, films or K-pop.
- Defectors reported that students were ordered to attend executions as ideological instruction, with accounts of high schoolers among those killed, including cases linked to Squid Game.
- The 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act mandates five to 15 years of forced labor for possession and allows the death penalty for large-scale distribution.
- Testimonies describe systemic bribery that lets wealthier families evade harsh sentences, with some selling homes to raise up to $10,000 to pay officials.
- Amnesty urged North Korea to repeal laws that criminalize access to information and to abolish executions for media-related offenses.