Mick Hartley

More on that 14-year-old in North Korea, sentenced to 14 years of hard labour for watching just five minutes of a South Korean film. From the Daily NK:

North Korean authorities dispensed with ordinary trial procedures when they sentenced a middle school student to 14 years of forced labor for watching just five minutes of the South Korean film “The Man from Nowhere.”

A Daily NK source in Yanggang Province said on Monday that residents of the city of Hyesan are on edge as word spreads of the incident involving the student.

He said locals are worried because the student got 14 years of forced labor without a proper trial.

…in the case of the middle school student in question, the authorities busted him on Nov. 7 and concluded his case on Nov. 22. To sentence a 14-year-old student to 14 years of forced labor after just 15 days of investigations and trials is highly extraordinary.

Well yes. And to sentence a 14-year-old student to 14 years of forced labor for watching five minutes of a film is also highly extraordinary.

The sentencing of the teen was closely connected with last year’s enactment of a law to eradicate “reactionary” thought and culture, which calls for a maximum sentence of death for watching or distributing South Korean films, recordings or other video material, and up to 15 years of forced labor for other people involved.

The unified command on non-socialist and anti-socialist behavior – otherwise known as Unified Command 82, which is tasked with cracking down on violations of the law to eradicate “reactionary” thought and culture – reportedly demanded that, in the teen’s case, the authorities not drag things out, but instead “boldly deal with the criminal” in a “public struggle” after a “blitz” investigation, preliminary examination, and trial. 

The source said there are cases everywhere of people receiving sentences in less than 10 days in cases connected to South Korean films or TV programs.

“No where else in the world can you get 14 years in prison after watching [just] five minutes of a film,” he claimed, adding, “It demonstrates just how threatened the authorities feel by South Korean media.”

It also demonstrates what an Orwellian hell-hole North Korea is – lest we should ever forget.

The Daily NK relies on anonymous informers inside North Korea. As Wikipedia has it, the Daily NK "is a defector and anti-DPRK dissident-run online newspaper based in South Korea, where it allegedly reports stories obtained from inside North Korea via a network of informants". The "allegedly" seems a little harsh: there's no other way it could operate, given the extraordinary restraints on any form of free speech or dissidence inside the DPRK. The informants are taking a huge risk.

The necessary lack of corroboration for these stories perhaps explains why the Daily NK gets so little coverage in the mainstream media. Even when they're cited, as in Richard Lloyd Parry's Times piece last week (which I covered here), there's no link provided.

This is the second time now they've covered this case of the 14-year-old. I would suggest that that's because it's true. It's something that's actually happened – and something the world outside North Korea needs to be aware of.