KB News Desk
Pair arrested and punished after another friend who had watched the series with them confessed to police, news report says
Two young North Koreans were reportedly punished after being caught secretly watching South Korean shows, local media reported Friday.
According to Daily NK, a news outlet specializing in North Korean affairs, the two residents of Pyongsong in South Pyongan province were arrested after police discovered they had been watching South Korean TV series through overseas online channels over several years.
Among the content was the tvN series “Bon Appetit, Your Majesty,” starring actors Lim Yoon-a and Lee Chae-min. The fantasy romance follows a chef who travels back to the Joseon era and wins over a tyrant king with modern cuisine. The show’s heavy focus on traditional Korean food is believed to have contributed to its popularity among young North Korean viewers.
The pair’s mutual friend, who had watched the drama series with them in June, later reported them to police. The friend turned himself in because he believed the two would eventually be caught after years of watching illegal content and feared he would be punished as an accomplice, the report said.
The informant was released without significant punishment; the other two were arrested, had their homes searched and were later punished, though the report did not specify what penalties they received.
“The families of the two detainees fear that their entire households could be forcibly relocated from Pyongsong to a remote area with poor living conditions,” an anonymous source inside North Korea told the news outlet.
North Korea has steadily intensified its crackdown on the spread of South Korean dramas, films, music and other foreign cultural content under the Law on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture and the Youth Education Guarantee Law.
A report published by Amnesty International in February, based on in-depth interviews with 25 North Korean defectors, includes testimony that a group of high school students in Ryanggang province were publicly executed for watching the Netflix hit series “Squid Game.”
