North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has allegedly created a secret squad whose purpose is to execute those who watch pornography, a recent report claims.
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The 'hit squad' has apparently been designed to help address the issue of negative ‘foreign influences’ including, foreign television, pornography, haircuts and birthday parties, as Jong-un makes living restrictions in the country even more severe.
‘Impure cultural contents’
The report comes from a recent defector’s testimony and claims, as per the Mirror:
I've heard about people being shot for distributing impure cultural contents. There was one person who was executed for watching pornography and prostituting at his place after Kim Jong-un took office.
Foreign media, or anything deemed to be too 'Western', is strictly prohibited in North Korea and any dissent is severely punished. The Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) based in Seoul, has said leader Jong-un is tightening his grip on the nation and this latest report supports that with one testimony claiming, as per the Daily Mail:
It is worse than the Kim Jong Il era. The border has become tighter, more barbed wire fences have been installed. Also, there were instructions to directly fire at any person crossing the border.
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Labour camps
Punishments range from job demotion or dismissal to spending time in a re-education or labour camp. Execution is saved for extreme cases with reports that at least 10 civilians in the previous decade had been killed by firing squad for simply watching South Korean content.
Another defector testified to this, as per the Daily Mail;
If you consume sexual media content in North Korea, you are either punished with a lifetime term of "reform through labour" or even executed by firing squad. Watching typical South Korean or American material will lead to a sentence of fewer than ten years of 'reform through labour.
Further reports claim that earlier this month four students were expelled from university and forced to work in a coal mine because it was thought they sounded as if they had been watching too much foreign TV. This included using accents or phrases from South Korean or America media – both forbidden in North Korea.
Sources used:
- Mirror 'Kim Jong-un sets up secret North Korea squad to stop people watching pornography'
- Daily Mail 'Executed for watching porn: Kim Jong Un's new secret squad will SHOOT anyone viewing sex videos and clamp down on 'foreign influences' such as haircuts and birthday parties '