North Korean officials reportedly executed for watching soap operas
IMAGE: LEE JIN-MAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
If you thought his recent health issues had mellowed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, think again.
The regime has reportedly executed 10 party officials for watching South Korean soap operas, according to South Korea's Yonhap News, a publicly funded company. These executions are just the latest in a long string of purges ordered by Kim to get rid of political opponents.
Two South Korean lawmakers, Lee Cheol-woo of the ruling Saenuri Party and Shin Kyong-min of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, revealed the executions to Yonhap News, but did not specify who the victims were or when they were killed. They also said that Kim disappeared last month because of an operation on his right ankle to remove a cyst.
At the time, his absence sparked all kinds of rumors and speculation. Some even hypothesized that there had been a coup, and that Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong was now in power. But this latest round of executions, which come almost a year after North Korea's dictator ordered the killing of Jang Song-thaek, his uncle and de facto deputy, proves Jong-un is willing to assert his power however he can.
"Kim Jong-un is trying to establish absolute power and strengthen his regime with public punishments," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Bloomberg. "However, frequent purges can create side effects."
Watching foreign media, TV broadcasts and soap operas, is illegal in North KoreaWatching foreign media, TV broadcasts and soap operas, is illegal in North Korea. The regime tightly controls its citizens' access to information, even jamming satellite and radio signals to prevent people from having a window into the world outside the hermit country.
Despite the public prohibition, it is widely believed that both Jong-un, as well as his father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, have had access to Western movies. Kim Jong-il reportedlyhad a private library of 30,000 DVDs.
And North Koreans are starting to get a hold of South Korean soap operas as well, according to The Guardian.
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