EXECUTED For Watching Squid Game—Teens KILLED

North Korea’s communist regime executed teenagers by firing squad for simply watching the South Korean series Squid Game and listening to K-pop, exposing the horrifying reality of totalitarian control that leftists ignore while pushing us down a similar path of censorship and government overreach.

Story Highlights

High school students in Hyesan publicly executed by firing squad for watching Squid Game and distributing South Korean media among friends
Kim Jong-un’s regime forces schoolchildren to witness executions as ideological terror tactics, with wealthy families bribing officials to escape punishment
Amnesty International’s February 2026 report documents systematic executions across border provinces, based on 25 escapee interviews
North Korea’s 2020 law criminalizing foreign media as “reactionary ideology” mirrors leftist cancel culture and Big Tech censorship here at home

Communist Regime Executes Students for Entertainment Choices

Three high school students in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, gathered in early October 2025 to watch South Korean and American dramas including Squid Game, distributing the content among friends via smuggled USB drives. North Korean authorities caught the teenagers late in 2025 for circulating banned content. In early 2026, a ten-person firing squad executed the students at an airfield before a crowd, delivering approximately thirty rounds. The regime sentenced them to death on-site without meaningful due process, exemplifying the brutal enforcement of Kim Jong-un’s 2020 Law on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture.

Forced Attendance Turns Executions Into Mass Indoctrination

North Korean authorities mobilize tens of thousands of citizens, including schoolchildren, to witness public executions as ideological enforcement tools. Escapee Kim Eunju, age forty, explained the regime’s strategy: “It’s ideological education—if you watch, this happens to you too.” Teachers conduct weekly sessions in schools warning students about the dangers of foreign media, combining propaganda with public humiliation tactics. Kim Yerim, age twenty-six, recounted forced attendance at execution viewings since middle school. This systematic terrorization of entire communities serves to suppress dissent and reinforce the regime’s absolute control, particularly targeting impoverished families unable to bribe corrupt officials.

Class-Based Justice System Favors Elite Families

North Korea’s enforcement of media bans disproportionately punishes poor families while wealthy elites escape consequences through bribes. Amnesty International’s February 2026 report, based on twenty-five escapee interviews, documents how connected families pay off Youth League and Party officials to spare their children from execution or labor camp sentences. The Hyesan students lacked the financial resources or political connections to survive their arrests. This corruption creates a two-tier system where ideological purity serves as pretext for class-based repression. Kim Joonsik, age twenty-eight, testified that three of his sister’s friends received multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s for similar offenses, demonstrating the pattern’s consistency.

Border Provinces Face Intensified Crackdowns

Incidents cluster in provinces bordering China—Ryanggang, North Hamgyong, and North Pyongan—where smuggled USB drives containing South Korean content enter via black market networks. The regime views K-pop and South Korean dramas as existential threats to Juche ideology, capable of undermining decades of indoctrination. Radio Free Asia reported a 2021 execution in North Hamgyong Province for distributing South Korean shows, while 2017-2018 public executions in Sinuiju drew tens of thousands of forced spectators. Teens in South Pyongan faced investigation in 2021 merely for possessing BTS music. These crackdowns intensified throughout the 2010s as USB smuggling increased, revealing the regime’s desperation to prevent cultural contamination from the prosperous South.

Warning Sign for American Censorship Trends

While North Korea represents an extreme case, the underlying principle of government-controlled information should alarm Americans watching Big Tech and leftist politicians collaborate to suppress dissenting voices. The same mentality that executes teenagers for entertainment choices manifests here through deplatforming, cancel culture, and coordination between government agencies and social media companies to control narratives. When authorities claim power to determine acceptable speech and information access, they establish the framework for totalitarian control. North Korea’s 2020 law criminalizing “reactionary ideology” differs only in degree, not kind, from efforts to censor “misinformation” that conveniently targets conservative viewpoints. The path from suppressing dissent to executing dissenters requires only unchecked power and time.