CORRECTION: A previous version of this article wrongly stated that viewers of South Korean video material face the death penalty, based on explanatory materials obtained by Daily NK regarding the anti-reactionary thought law. The explanatory materials state that only distributors face such a penalty. This has been corrected below in the article.
North Korean authorities dispensed with ordinary trial procedures when they sentenced a middle school student to 14 years of forced labor for watching just five minutes of the South Korean film “The Man from Nowhere.”
A Daily NK source in Yanggang Province said on Monday that residents of the city of Hyesan are on edge as word spreads of the incident involving the student.
He said locals are worried because the student got 14 years of forced labor without a proper trial.
In North Korea, criminal procedures follow a four-stage process: investigation, preliminary examinationAlso referred to as a "pretrial," the preliminary examinatio... More, indictment, and trial. The accused can be detained for 1) 10 days during “investigation procedures,” the initial stage when he is first accused of the crime; 2) five months during the “preliminary examinationAlso referred to as a "pretrial," the preliminary examinatio... More,” which is similar to the investigation stage in South Korea; 3) and 15 days during “prosecutorial procedures,” the final stage.
The maximum detention period used to be four months, 25 days, but this was extended by a month when North Korea’s criminal code was amended in 2012.
The maximum detention period in North Korea is about six times longer than in South Korea. North Korean prosecutors have largely focused on getting to the very bottom of cases, with plenty of time to investigate. With the authorities stressing the rule of law since Kim Jong Un came to power, criminal procedures have – generally speaking – adhered to these formal procedures.
However, in the case of the middle school student in question, the authorities busted him on Nov. 7 and concluded his case on Nov. 22. To sentence a 14-year-old student to 14 years of forced labor after just 15 days of investigations and trials is highly extraordinary.
The sentencing of the teen was closely connected with last year’s enactment of a law to eradicate “reactionary” thought and culture, which calls for a maximum sentence of death for distributing South Korean films, recordings, or other video material, and up to 15 years of forced labor for watching such media.
The unified command on non-socialist and anti-socialist behavior – otherwise known as Unified Command 82, which is tasked with cracking down on violations of the law to eradicate “reactionary” thought and culture – reportedly demanded that, in the teen’s case, the authorities not drag things out, but instead “boldly deal with the criminal” in a “public struggle” after a “blitz” investigation, preliminary examinationAlso referred to as a "pretrial," the preliminary examinatio... More, and trial.
The source said there are cases everywhere of people receiving sentences in less than 10 days in cases connected to South Korean films or TV programs.
“No where else in the world can you get 14 years in prison after watching [just] five minutes of a film,” he claimed, adding, “It demonstrates just how threatened the authorities feel by South Korean media.”
