North Korea executed two teenagers for watching South Korean films, claims report

A report claims that two teenagers in North Korea were executed for watching South Korean films. The incident allegedly took place, earlier this year, in October but the information about the executions emerged last week. Furthermore, another boy of similar age was also executed for killing his stepmother, the report claims.

The report by The Mirror citing witnesses saidboys were aged somewhere between 16 and 17 and were shot in front of the “horrified” locals. The witnesses also said that they were forced to watch the executions, “The authorities put the teen-aged students in front of the public, sentenced them to death, and immediately shot them,” the witnesses reportedly told Radio Free Asia.

“Those who watch or distribute South Korean movies and dramas, and those who disrupt social order by murdering other people, will not be forgiven and will be sentenced to the maximum penalty, death,” the residents of Hyesan, a city near the Chinese border were allegedly told. Another report by the Daily Mail said that the third boy was executed alongside them and the locals were told that the crimes were ‘equally evil’.

Notably, a week prior to the executions the locals were told about the country’s crackdown on crimes involving foreign media, said the report. Furthermore, foreign media is completely banned in North Korea and the locals were also allegedly warned about watching or listening to movies and music, particularly from South Korea which the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un views as the biggest enemy.