One of several students arrested in Pyongyang on charges of distributing foreign video content died during police detention last month, Daily NK has learned.
According to a Daily NK source in Pyongyang on Thursday, four high school students in Taesong District, Pyongyang,were arrested by Unified Command 82 (below: UC 82) in November on charges of watching, possessing and distributing “impure videos” in violation of the law to eradicate reactionary thought and culture, as well as for covering up, abetting and failing to report those violations.
The source said on Mother’s Day (Nov. 16), students at the high school gathered at the home of one of the students where they drank, listened to South Korean music and danced.
“Another student who wasn’t invited to the gathering reported it out of spite,” he said. “Based on the report, the UC 82 raided the home, and in the course of their search they discovered a memory card with foreign music, movies and videos.”
UC 82 conducted back-to-back investigations to discover the source of the videos, and arrested four students they singled out as the initial distributors.
North Korea enacted its law to eradicate reactionary thought and culture — which includes punishments for importing and distributing foreign videos — in December of 2020 and called for its strict enforcement during the National Conference of Judicial Officers in September.
Believing the importation and distribution of foreign videos endanger the regime, the authorities are heavily enforcing the law.
DEATH OF ARRESTED STUDENT LEADS TO UPROAR AMONG FAMILY MEMBERS
Based on the source’s account, an uproar ensued after one of the arrested students died in the lockup from cruel treatment and beatings.
“One of the students in the lock-up asked the guard to let him go to the bathroom because he really needed to defecate, but the guard ignored him, so he was forced to go in his pants,” said the source.
“Outraged by this, the guard punished him by telling him to stand on his head. But when the student kept falling, he beat him, and during the beating, the student hit his head hard on the floor and lost consciousness,” he added.
However, the guard did not take the unconscious student to the hospital, leaving him lying there in the lock-up for a while. A while later, he was belatedly brought to the hospital, but he ultimately died, the source said.
After receiving the body and learning of how the student died, the bereaved family submitted a complaint to the Workers’ Party Central Committee and asked for help from a relative who is a high-ranking cadre in the Ministry of State Security.
“The dead student’s uncle is a Ministry of State Security cadre,” said the source. “He mediated, calling on the family to quietly settle matters if they could and persuading them to withdraw the complaint, and demanding through the unified command that the lockup guard be discharged and the family compensated for their loss.”
The source said the resolution was aimed at preventing the issue from getting any bigger given that the student was facing charges of illegally distributing impure videos, something strictly prohibited by the regime.
REMAINING STUDENTS AWAITING TRIAL
Meanwhile, the source said it will likely take five or six months of investigations until the other arrested students face trial.
“The court will decide their punishment based on whether they were the initial distributors, how many times they watched the videos, how many times they distributed them, their history of ideological statements, and other factors,” he said.
According to explanatory materials on the law to eradicate reactionary thought and culture obtained by Daily NK, the punishment for importing and distributing South Korean movies, recordings, videos or publications is life in a forced labor camp or death, depending on the circumstances.
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