North Korea Teens Sentenced For Watching Forbidden TV, See The Shocking Video
From across the world, those of us in the United States have watched North Korea for years with a mix of fear and fascination for a country that couldn’t be further from the ideas and principles that ours was founded on.
In the newest strike against its own countrymen, a video that managed to make its way out of the highly-guarded nation reveals the troubling reality of what happens when teens give in to the allure of Western culture.
After watching Korean TV dramas, two youths have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.
The video in question shows two close-ups of the young boys dressed in gray jumpsuits before cutting to what can only be described as a public fixed court appearance.
The North Korean so-called criminals are surrounded by a completely filled stadium of their peers
Standing on the ground floor of an arena, the North Korean so-called criminals are surrounded by a completely filled stadium of their peers. Handcuffs are slapped on the teens before they’re presumably hauled off into captivity following a poor excuse for a shot at justice.
It’s worth noting the importance of such a scene of public shame and ridicule as the perpetrators were undoubtedly meant to be made an example of. While many of North Korea’s swift decisions of law are handled in secret, this one was carried out in front of hundreds – if not thousands.
North Korean officials were undoubtedly making an example of the teens
We can’t fully make out the faces of everyone seated in the background, it would appear that – at the very least – the majority is made up of teens close in age to the sentenced men, likely sending a message to others of the dangers of watching such shows.
The video is a grim and solemn reminder of the difficult and deadly realities facing those who live in North Korea. The country’s dictator, Kim Jong Un, has long preached about the evilness that comes from Western culture, with Korean TV dramas certainly falling under that category.
The harsh ruler has forcefully kept the people under his thumb in every way possible, with videos like this one hard to come by as far as examples of the tyranny that has managed to leak their way out of North Korea’s borders.
Despite North Korea’s strict and torturous rules, visitors from around the world are still morbidly fascinated with the goings on and the inner workings of the country, pushing many to see the chaos for themselves.
While most follow the authoritarian rules, there are those, like the case of United States native, Otto Warmbier, who bend the laws only to find out the consequences. Like the two teenage boys in today’s breaking news story, Warmbier was sentenced to hard labor after he ripped down a propaganda poster from his hotel.
Proving that hard labor in North Korea isn’t the same as in the United States, Warmbier would tragically end up in a coma shortly after he was taken into custody. Though he was eventually returned to his family overseas, he would succumb to his wounds shortly after being transported to a hospital in Ohio.
While James Franco and Seth Rogen may have had fun poking at Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship and his hold over North Korea in the 2014 film, The Interview (which is currently streaming on Netflix), today’s video is a reminder of the grim realities facing the country’s civilians day in and day out.
Source: BBC News
