N. Korea Is Now Executing People for Watching Foreign Movie Films
North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, delivering a speech during a parliament session in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 2022. KCNA / EPA
A new United Nations report reveals that North Korea is increasingly resorting to the death penalty against ordinary citizens, including those caught watching or distributing foreign films and TV shows. Based on interviews with over 300 recent escapees, the report details how Kim Jong Un’s regime has tightened its grip on society over the past decade through expanded surveillance, repressive new laws, and widespread fear tactics—including public executions.
According to the report, North Korea now imposes capital punishment for offenses such as consuming foreign media, particularly South Korean content. Eyewitness accounts describe public executions designed to serve as warnings to the population.
When Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, there was initial hope for economic reform. Instead, the report finds, living conditions and basic rights have deteriorated sharply—especially after diplomatic talks with the West broke down in 2019. Many interviewees spoke of worsening food shortages, the collapse of informal markets, and strict border controls aimed at preventing escape. Regular meals have become a rarity, with many citizens struggling daily to find enough to eat.
The report also documents a rise in forced labor. Children from poor families, orphans, and street youth are being sent to “shock brigades” — forced to perform grueling and dangerous work under harsh conditions.
“In the early days of Kim Jong Un, we had some hope, but that hope did not last long,” said one woman who escaped in 2018 at age 17. Another defector recounted how three friends were executed after being caught with South Korean media. Kang Gyuri, who fled in 2023, said one of her friends was tried alongside drug offenders and executed, noting: “These crimes are treated the same now.”
The report emphasizes that since 2020, executions related to foreign media have escalated.
Over the past decade, North Korea’s government has “exercised near total control over people, leaving them unable to make their own decisions,” the report concludes. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned that unless the regime changes course, North Koreans will continue to face “more suffering, brutal repression, and fear.”
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