Mick Hartley

The Daily NK on North Korea's anti-reactionary thought law:

Daily NK is the first news outlet to have acquired the full text of the “Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” otherwise known as the “anti-reactionary thought law.” The full text of the law confirms that North Koreans who smuggle in, distribute, or encourage group viewing of movies and dramas from enemy countries can face the death penalty. 

The full text of the law acquired by Daily NK is a version of the law that was amended and supplemented by Order No. 1028 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly on August 19, 2022. The law is made up of four chapters and 41 articles….

The law’s first chapter (Basics of the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act) defines reactionary thought and culture as “rotten ideology and culture of hostile forces including South Korean publications that paralyzes the people’s revolutionary sense of ideology and social class, and deteriorates and depraves our society, as well as all types of impure and absurd ideology and culture that are not in our own style.” In short, the law states that South Korean movies, dramas, news and other outside content are reactionary thought and culture. 

Article 5 (Principle of Reinforcing Ideological and Cultural Education) stipulates that “under circumstances where enemies’ ideological and cultural infiltration schemes are becoming increasingly cunning and heinous, the State shall further strengthen ideological and cultural education for the people so that they are not imbued with reactionary ideology and culture.” This acknowledges that the enactment of the law was due to the political burdens created by the spread of foreign content and its impact on people in the country. 

Article 7 (Principle of Punishment of Offenders of Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Order) stipulates that “the State shall enforce strict legal sanctions up to and including death penalty against any citizen bringing in, viewing, and distributing reactionary ideology and culture, depending on the severity, regardless of the reason and the offender’s social class.”

Chapter 4 stipulates punishments for violators of the law. Article 27 (Crime of Distributing South Korean Ideology and Culture) details the punishments given to people who smuggle or distribute South Korean movies and video recordings. 

Specifically, the articles states that “any person who views, listens to, or possesses South Korean movies, video recordings, compilations, books, songs, drawings, or photographs, or who brings in and distributes South Korean songs, drawings, photographs, or designs shall be sentenced to five to 10 years of reform through labor. If the severity of the crime is deemed high, the offender shall be sentenced to reform through labor for 10 years or more.” The article goes on to stipulate that “any person who brings in or distributes South Korean movies, video recordings, compilations, and books shall be sentenced to reform through labor for life.”

Article 28 (Crime of Distributing Ideology and Cuture of Hostile Countries) stipulates that “any person who views, listens to, or possesses movies, video recordings, books, songs, drawings, or photographs of hostile countries, or who brings in and distributes songs, drawings, photographs, or designs of hostile countries shall be sentenced to reform through labor for up to five years,” and that “if the severity of the crime is deemed high, the offender shall be sentenced to five to 10 years of reform through labor.”

Similar to Article 27, Article 28 stipulates that people who smuggle or distribute foreign content shall face 10 or more years of reform through labor, a punishment heavier than those given to people who simply consume foreign media. It goes on to state that “any person who brings in or distributes a large amount of movies, video recordings, compilations, and books of hostile countries to a large number of people, or who supports or encourages other people to view or read them in a group shall be sentenced to reform through labor for life or the death penalty.”

Meanwhile, Article 29 (Crime of Distributing Adult Videos and Sexually Explicit Materials and Spreading Superstition) sets forth punishments for people who view or possess adult videos, sexually explicit or superstitutous movies, video recordings, compilations, books, photographs or drawings. The punishments for these violations are the same as those stipulated in Article 28, ranging from at least five years of reform through labor up to the death penalty. 

Article 32 (Crime of Reproducing South Korean Culture) sets forth that “any person who speaks, writes, or sings in the South Korean style, or produces publications in South Korean font shall be sentenced to short-term disciplinary labor. If the severity of the crime is deemed high, the offender shall be sentenced to reform through labor up to 2 years.” The Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act, which was recently enacted by North Korea, appears to have intensified the punishments detailed in this section of the anti-reactionary thought law. 

The anti-reactionary thought law also stipulates punishments of short-term disciplinary labor, reform through labor, and the payment of fines for the consumption of foreign content through the illegal use of televisions and radios (Article 33); the crime of not reporting any activities involved in the smuggling, viewing or distribution of South Korean videos and adult videos (Article 34); and illegally installing operating system programs on cell phones of other people or possessing mobile phones manufactured in other countries (Article 35). The law even lays out punishments for parents when crimes related to reactionary ideology and culture occur as a result of their failure to educate and discipline their children (Article 37). 

They seem to have everything covered. So, no culture from outside, and particularly no culture from South Korea. Since – as I've noted often enough before – there's no culture in North Korea outside of Kim worship, then that's it. That's all there is.