The totalitarian nation of North Korea, ruled by its supreme leader Kim Jong Un, has unusual rules and laws. Now, in a bid to intensify its Western media crackdown, North Korea has threatened to punish parents if their children are caught watching Western-made films and TV programmes, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.
As per the new rules, parents of children caught viewing foreign films will be sent to labour camps for six months while children will serve five years of imprisonment.
In the past, parents could get away with a serious warning if their children were caught in possession of media from overseas. However, this time, no leniency will be shown for parents whose children are exposed to Western culture. There is also an increased pressure on parents to educate their children “properly” in socialist ideals.
Radio Free Asia spoke to an anonymous source from within North Korea, who claimed that parents had been given severe warnings at their weekly Inminban - compulsory neighbourhood watch unit meetings.
"The host of the meeting emphasized parental responsibility, saying that education for children begins at home. If parents do not educate their children from moment to moment, they will dance and sing of capitalism and become anti-socialists,” the source said.
Anyone found performing "like a South Korean" will also be slapped with a six-month term, as will their parents. The crackdown comes from a fear that North Korea's younger population is becoming exposed to the values and norms of other countries.
Smuggling Western media across the border could even be punished by execution. Last year, the country executed two high school students for watching South Korean and American movies. The two teens were executed in front of locals at an airfield in the city. Notably, viewing or distributing Korean dramas, popularly known as K-dramas, is strictly forbidden in North Korea.
In 2020, the government banned foreign information and influence as part of its crackdown on Korean shows which were growing popular in the country.
