At least seven people were publicly executed in North Korea between 2012 and 2014 for watching or distributing K-pop videos, according to a report published this week.
Transitional Justice Working Group interviewed 683 North Korean defectors since 2015 to document executions in the reclusive nation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called K-pop a “vicious cancer” corrupting the “attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviours” of young people. State media has warned that K-pop’s influence will make the country “crumble like a damp wall.”
Watching or possessing K-pop is punishable by up to 15 years in a labour camp and distribution of the music can lead to execution.
Kim welcomed K-pop acts to Pyongyang during a 2018 summit with South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in.