North Korean students are expelled from school and forced to work in a coal mine because it sounds like they’ve been watching too much foreign television

North Korean students have been expelled from university and forced to work in a coal mine because it sounds like they watched too much foreign television.

According to sources in the authoritarian country, the four students were caught speaking with softer accents on their cellphones and using endearing expressions associated with people in South Korea.

Prohibited songs, films and TV programs such as “Squid Game” or “Crash Landing on You” are smuggled into the country on USB sticks. It is believed that the students probably picked up the way of speaking by watching such media.

According to Radio Free Asia (RFA) sources, it has become fashionable among young North Koreans to speak like their free southern neighbors. But Pyongyang and Kim Jong-un consider such speech styles counter-revolutionary and therefore a crime.

“The phenomenon of using a ‘pop accent’ is defined by the Central Committee as an unforgivable act of sympathy with the enemy’s plot to infiltrate civilian ideology and culture,” a resident of North Hamgyong- province told RFA.

Until recently, the authorities ordered those who spoke in a way deemed unacceptable to write a self-deprecating statement promising never to use the accent again, the publication’s source said.

However, officials will now impose tougher penalties, he said.

Officials “ordered strong countermeasures and say the phenomenon of using the South Korean accent is a counter-revolutionary crime that could destroy our domestic affairs,” the source told RFA.

In December 2020, North Korea enacted the Rejecter of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, punishing citizens with up to two years of hard labor for those caught speaking, writing or singing in South Korean style.

The harsh penalty for forced labor can be up to 15 years, while residents caught distributing foreign media content face the death penalty.

Under this law, two teenagers were executed in October for selling USB flash drives containing South Korean TV shows or movies. They were killed by firing squad.

The couple, both boys believed to be between the ages of 16 and 17, were shot dead at an airport in front of horrified locals in the city of Hyesan, on the border with China. The news of her death came two months later, in December.

A third boy of the same age was executed with them for the murder of his stepmother, with local residents saying the crimes were “as bad” as the media.

In December 2020, North Korea enacted the Rejecter of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, punishing citizens with up to two years of hard labor for those caught speaking, writing or singing in South Korean style. PICTURED: This photo provided by the North Korean government shows a rally at the May Day Stadium in support of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s recent rally in Pyongyang, North Korea, on January 5, 2023

Kim Jong Un vows to expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal ‘exponentially’: Click here to read more

Foreign media, especially anything deemed “Western,” is strictly banned in North Korea, brainwashing the population into unquestioning support for the ruling regime. Any dissenting opinion will be severely punished.

Kim Jong-un views South Korea as a US puppet state and is sensitive to any of his media crossing the border into China.

But despite strict control, such items are often smuggled into the country on USB sticks or SD cards. It is usually brought across the border from China and then traded among North Koreans, especially among younger citizens.

The ruling communist regime uses whistleblowers recruited from the general population to track down record sellers and report them to the authorities.

In the case of the two teenagers, one of these spies claimed to have sold USB sticks with the programs on the local market.

Such executions are rare but not uncommon in North Korea, and are usually used to scare people into compliance when authorities have concerns about breaking rules.

North Korean youths caught watching foreign films will be taken to a disciplinary labor center, a source in Hyesan said.

A second offense means she and her parents will be sent to a prison camp for five years as punishment for not punishing their children.

But anyone caught distributing or selling South Korean films faces the death penalty, even if they are minors, the source added.

In December 2021, it was reported that at least ten civilians had been killed by firing squad in the past decade for watching South Korean content.