North Korean Teenagers Killed for Watching South Korean Videos: Shocking Human Rights Abuses Revealed

The Ministry of Unification publicly released the North Korean Human Rights Report for the first time last year (2023), which they compiled from 2017 to 2022.

The report, based on the testimonies of over 500 North Korean defectors, documents over 1,600 cases of human rights abuses. The publicly released contents reveal rampant public executions, inhumane acts such as live human experimentation, and serious human rights abuses.

The 2023 North Korean Human Rights Report published by the government reveals shocking instances of frequent executions, even for non-serious crimes. For example, six teenagers were sentenced to death and executed for watching South Korean-related videos and using opium. In South Korea, not only has the death penalty been abolished, but teenagers under 19 are protected by the Youth Protection Act, which provides for lighter sentences than adults for their wholesome upbringing and protection. In stark contrast, North Korea ruthlessly took the lives of adolescents for watching South Korean-related videos. Furthermore, a pregnant woman was executed when a video of her dancing and pointing at a portrait of Kim Il Sung with her finger was circulated.

Professor Park Won Gon of Ewha Womans University’s North Korean Studies Department explained, “North Korea has been virtually closing its borders for three years, which would have put the daily lives of its residents in even more difficulty, and this is raising issues in the international community from a human rights perspective. They are not guaranteed the economic and social rights they should naturally enjoy and are being seriously violated.”

To raise awareness of these serious human rights abuses in North Korea, a defector gave a speech in English at Harvard, a prestigious Ivy League university in the United States.

Freedom Speakers International (FSI), a North Korean human rights organization, announced that it held an English speech contest on the 14th (local time) at the Pfizer Lecture Hall at Harvard University, with seven defectors participating the previous day, the 13th.

The defector participants reportedly gave various and in-depth presentations related to the reality of human rights in North Korea, based on their experiences of indiscriminate human rights abuses in North Korea, the rights of people with disabilities, women’s rights in China, and their identities as defectors.

The contest winner was Kim Myung Hee, who gave a presentation on the gender discrimination and motherhood of North Korean defector women. Kim drew attention by revealing to the world her experience of human rights abuses, such as human trafficking, that North Korean women faced in China when she defected at the age of 17.

FSI has held an English speech contest twice yearly in South Korea for almost 10 years since 2015. This is the first time it has been held in the United States.

Kim Myung Hee, who defected in 1998 and is originally from Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, reportedly felt resentment towards North Korea after her father, who had been receiving food rations, was attacked by a robber and died during the March of Suffering. However, there were no human rights in the defection process based on her speech.

After being deceived and sold to a Chinese person, she was arrested by Chinese public security while working in agriculture in 2000 and forcibly repatriated to North Korea. Kim, who was taken to the Ministry of State Security, experienced a horrific prison life of three to four months. She was subjected to unimaginable brutal punishment, such as kneeling and raising her hands all day long and sleeping on a stone and sand floor at night.

Kim recalled that time, saying, “I was treated inhumanely in that place countless times,” and “There were no shower facilities, so several people had to go into a water tank where ice was floating in the middle of winter to wash.” She attempted to defect again and finally arrived in South Korea in 2007 after three attempts.

Kim Myung Hee, who is in a social welfare doctoral course at Yonsei University, said, “I started to become interested in human rights issues while studying in graduate school, but people knew too little about North Korean human rights.” She added, “I pledged to step forward and inform people about the reality of North Korean human rights. I believe that the issue of North Korean human rights cannot be resolved in a short period, and more people need to know about it, so I should continue to inform people in English, which is an internationally used language.” She explained why she participated in the English speech contest at Harvard.

In addition, Maeng Hyo Sim, a defector, gave a speech on North Korean Disabled Human Rights at this contest. She conveyed the ordeal her mother had gone through as a disabled person who was diagnosed with a disability after contracting polio as a child. Maeng said, “The horrifying incident of my mother, who had difficulty moving due to polio in her childhood, being brutally beaten with an iron bar by a neighbor and breaking her arm is still vivid. When I saw this incident being covered up without any punishment by officials who received bribes, I felt disillusioned with North Korean society where money solves everything, and decided to defect.” She added, “North Korea has no awareness of the need to protect and take care of the disabled. Comparing North Korea, where you can only see wheelchairs in hospitals or if you forcibly look for them, with South Korea, where there are seats for the disabled on buses and other places where the disabled are considered, was amazing.” Maeng said, “The thought struck me that I need to inform the world about the current state of North Korea, which has no concept of disabled human rights, in English, the world’s common language. It’s exciting to convey North Korean human rights to the world’s top university students.” She revealed the behind-the-scenes story of learning English from a native speaker online for two hours every day since February to prepare for this contest.