Mick Hartley

Different rules for different folk. From the Daily NK:

A nephew of North Korean Air Force commander Kim Gwang Hyok was spared from execution after leader Kim Jong Un issued a personal directive overturning the sentence, sparking a growing backlash over unequal enforcement of the country’s strict foreign content laws.

A source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Monday that the nephew had been arrested for watching and distributing banned foreign video recordings and was sentenced to death under the Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law, a statute enacted in 2020 that criminalizes the viewing or circulation of foreign content, including South Korean films and television programs. Under the law, those found to have organized group screenings or distributed large volumes of such material face penalties ranging from life sentences at hard labor to execution. The nephew’s sentence was set to be carried out when Kim Jong Un’s personal directive arrived, instantly reversing the outcome.

According to the source, the nephew had been caught in possession of a large quantity of banned recordings and had regularly gathered acquaintances to watch them together, in addition to distributing the material without apparent concern. Given the scale and nature of the violations, prosecutors within the State Information Bureau (formerly the Ministry of State Security), the country’s primary political security agency responsible for investigating ideological crimes, had concluded that the maximum penalty was warranted and were finalizing the timing of the execution.

The directive that halted it instructed the bureau to reclassify the nephew as a mere curious viewer rather than a deliberate offender, citing the need to protect the record of loyalty and service built by Air Force Commander Kim Gwang Hyok. The source said that while the outcome was publicly framed as an expression of Kim Jong Un’s generosity and compassion, it set off considerable internal debate within party, government and judicial circles.

Judicial officials expressed frustration at being required to re-examine and reclassify an already finalized case. Privately, some questioned whether connections to a senior military figure had been the decisive factor, and whether future cases would require investigators to weigh a suspect’s background and personal ties before reaching a verdict.

The episode has crystallized a broader concern: that punishment under the Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law is applied unevenly depending on who the accused is. Ordinary North Korean people caught with foreign content routinely face severe punishment, making the commutation of a sentence for a senior commander’s relative all the more conspicuous.

It’s interesting that people are outraged at the double standards, but not outraged at the draconian laws involved. That’s how it works, I suppose: any law, no matter how manifestly unjust, can be accepted as long as it applies to everyone. Different rules for the elite, though – that’s when the grumbling starts. It’s human nature.