North Korea executed teens for listening to K-pop, watching 'Squid Game': report

It also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.

"Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings," said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.

Joonsik said three of his sisters' high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families' inability to pay bribes.

"The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections," said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International's deputy regional director.

Several defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.

"When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything," said Kim Eunju, 40. "People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It's ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too."