Mick Hartley

Pyongyang steps up its Orwellian surveillance:

North Korea has recently been increasing the severity of punishments for watching “impure videos” such as South Korean dramas and movies, Daily NK has learned.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Aug. 14 that a man in his twenties living in Cholsan County was sent to a political prison camp in July after being accused of watching South Korean videos. 

As it is almost impossible to survive in political prison camps, North Koreans regard being sent to such camps as a death sentence….

In late 2020, North Korea enacted the “Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act,” also known as the anti-reactionary thought law. Article 27 of the Act, which is entitled the “Crime of Distributing Puppet (South Korean) Ideology and Culture,” stipulates 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.” 

Based on the law, the man should have been sentenced to five to 10 years of reform through labor or more than 10 years if his crime was deemed severe; however, he was sentenced to time in one of North Korea’s political prison camps instead. 

The source told Daily NK that another man in his twenties was arrested in Sinuiju in June for watching pornography. This man was also sentenced to time in a political prison camp in the court’s final ruling. 

When the authorities searched the man’s house, they found that his portable storage device contained not only pornography but also many South Korean dramas and movies. 

Some had expected the man to be sentenced to reform through labor, but when he was sentenced to time in a political prison camp, people expressed concern that the authorities are intensifying their punishments of violators of the law.

“Before, even if you were caught watching South Korean dramas or movies, you could sometimes be released if you made use of your connections or paid bribes to the crackdown team,” the source said. “Recently, however, it’s difficult to avoid punishment even if you pay over USD 1,000.”

On July 20, the central government also ordered the propaganda departments of provincial, city, and county party committees to strengthen ideological education regarding the influx of foreign information.

According to the source, the order included the following instructions: a) strengthen the monolithic ideology system of the Workers’ Party; b) systematically carry out ideological education; c) intensify systematic surveillance and reporting systems such as inminban (neighborhood watch unit); d) strengthen efforts to ensure impure material such as puppet (South Korean) videos and pornography cannot be accessed; and e) intensify education related to the socialist revolution.

Given this, North Korea’s government looks set to intensify its ideological education and crackdowns on violators of the anti-reactionary thought law.