North Korean Teens Sentenced to 12 Years of Hard Labor for Watching South Korean TV

Rare footage reveals severe punishment amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Two 16-year-old boys in North Korea have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean television shows, a crime punishable by death under a 2020 law.
The sentencing was revealed in rare footage obtained by the BBC and released by the South and North Development (Sand) research institute.
The video is reportedly being distributed in North Korea as a means to warn citizens against watching 'decadent recordings', suggesting the government is moving to crack down harder on incidents involving South Korean entertainment.
Despite the severe punishments, South Korean media often makes its way into North Korea through China in the form of DVDs and other physical media.
The sentencing comes amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently calling on his country's legislature to rewrite the constitution to define South Korea as their 'primary foe and invariable principal enemy.'