North Korea Shows Troops K-Drama Trial Videos

As of October 13, 2026, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports that the North Korean military is using videos of trials and punishments of soldiers who watched outside media, such as South Korean dramas, as training material inside army units. The footage was reportedly made around 2023 and is still in use.

Around 2023When the training video was made, per RFA

5+ yearsLabor-camp sentence cited in the video

7+ yearsMinimum military service for young North Korean men, per an expert

Key points

Citing multiple anonymous sources, RFA reported that the video was made around 2023 and continues to be used in military unit training.
The footage shows confiscated cell phones, an arrest warrant, soldiers being arrested at a public trial, and a written self-criticism.
Speakers in the video cite labor-camp sentences of five years or more with no amnesty, and some even call for summary execution and punishing entire families.
A visiting professor at Japan's Hiroshima University said that making military trials public at all shows how worried the army is about ideological contamination.

The U.S.-based outlet Radio Free Asia (RFA) obtained and released a video that shows how North Korea catches and punishes soldiers and unit staff who watch or share outside media. On screen are several confiscated cell phones and an arrest warrant. Soldiers are arrested at a public trial, stripped of their belts and caps. The footage also includes a punished soldier writing a self-criticism and a military doctor's case file. RFA said it confirmed the details with multiple anonymous sources.

The rhetoric in the video is harsh. One woman on a discussion panel argued that anyone who watched American or South Korean videos should be hunted down and executed on the spot. A narrator branded viewers as traitors in league with the enemy and warned that watching banned videos ruins not just the viewer's life but also the lives of family and relatives, a nod to collective punishment. One punished soldier, in tears, said he regretted it because South Korean speech patterns and ideas wouldn't leave his head. Still, these are claims made inside the video. No actual executions have been reported.

The video also spells out the penalties. It stresses that this kind of viewing is a serious crime punishable by at least five years of labor-camp detention, and that offenders are excluded from amnesty. It also points out that soldiers are already barred from using civilian cell phones, yet some used them to get, watch, store and spread banned videos.

North Korea passed its Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Law in 2020, then added measures such as the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act to keep outside culture out. In an RFA interview, Yoshihiro Makino, a visiting professor at Hiroshima University, explained that young North Korean men enlist around age 17 and serve at least seven years, sometimes more than ten, so it's hard for a military full of young people to stay indifferent to South Korean culture. He noted that military trials are normally held behind closed doors, which suggests that putting one on video reflects the military's deep fear of ideological contamination.

In Korea right nowHere in South Korea: Major outlets including SBS, Korea Economic Daily, Seoul Shinmun and Edaily covered the video on Oct. 12-13. The idea that soldiers are being punished for watching K-dramas and movies, and that this is used as teaching material, is being read as a sign the Korean Wave (Hallyu) has reached inside North Korean barracks.

FAQ

Has the video been verified as authentic?

The reporting rests on RFA's account that it obtained the video through multiple anonymous sources. It doesn't include any independent verification of the footage.

Were summary executions actually carried out, as the video suggests?

Summary execution appears only as something a panelist in the video demanded. No actual cases have been confirmed in the reporting. The only specific penalty mentioned is a labor-camp sentence of five years or more.

Why would North Korea show soldiers a video like this?

Experts see it as the leadership's worry that interest in South Korean and other outside culture is growing in a military full of young people.