Popular K-dramas like Vicenzo featuring actor Song Joong-ki, from South Korea are banned in North Korea. - tvN
PETALING JAYA: Over 10,000 North Korean students have surrendered to the authorities for consuming K-pop, K-dramas and South Korean movies in the past four months since the hermit kingdom imposed the “anti-reactionary thought” law.
Singapore news portal Today reported on Tuesday (May 4), that the law was implemented in December last year.
Those who turned themselves in also handed over around 5,000 DVD players to the government in return for a lighter sentence.
Today also said the law imposed high fines and prison sentences on anyone in the country caught enjoying South Korean entertainment or copying the way South Koreans speak.
The “anti-reactionary thought” law is said to be supreme leader Kim Jong-un's call to raise the standard of homegrown (and state-controlled) media and also part of his war on outside influences.
The dictator reportedly hates the use of terms like “oppa” and “dong-saeng”, which means big brother and younger sister or brother respectively, to refer to non-relatives like how those in South Korea have a habit of doing.
Among the sentences that had been meted out are 15 years in forced labour camps and fines for parents whose child violates the ban.
Anyone who has been caught importing banned material from South Korea faces life imprisonment, while those who import the same items from the United States or Japan could face death.
