North Korea is intensifying its crackdown on various cultural practices, including wedding dresses and slang, to counter South Korean influence, according to a new report from South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
The report, based on testimonies from hundreds of defectors, reveals the case of a 22-year-old executed for listening to South Korean music and distributing films, a story first reported by the BBC last year.
North Korea dismissed last year’s report as “slander and fabrication” but has yet to respond to the latest document.
The report indicates that since 2021, there has been an increase in home searches by officials looking for signs of external cultural influence, as reported by Yonhap News Agency.
Indicators of such influence include wearing a white wedding dress or the groom lifting the bride on his back.
Additionally, people’s phones are being checked for South Korean slang in messages and contacts. Sunglasses have also been labeled counter-revolutionary, despite North Korean leader Kim Jong Un occasionally wearing them.
His father previously banned everyday items like jeans for similar reasons.
While specific punishments for these infractions are unclear, the crackdown on South Korean culture is notably harsh.
A 2020 law enforces the death penalty for watching or distributing South Korean entertainment. This year’s report includes an account, initially revealed by the BBC, of a public execution of a 22-year-old farmer who was killed for listening to 70 songs, watching three films, and distributing them.
This case is believed to be the only documented execution under the “reactionary ideology and culture rejection law” so far.
Additionally, a video from earlier this year shows two teenagers being sentenced to hard labor for similar offenses.
The release of the South Korean report comes amidst rising tensions between the two Koreas. North Korea has sent over 2,000 balloons filled with rubbish, some containing parasites, across the border in the past month.
Relations were further strained by a recent meeting between Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. This is only the second time the report has been publicly released since it began being compiled annually in 2018, previously withheld to avoid provoking North Korea.
Source-BBC
