It was reported North Korea increased public executions following the pandemic, and teenagers were no exception. 

On October 12th, a Japanese media outlet reported that since North Korea announced the end of the pandemic last August, the number of public executions in the country drastically increased. The reason behind this sudden uptick presents a clear message - to instill fear amongst the citizens and to bolster restrictive measures against the consumption and spread of South Korean media content. With the easing of pandemic-related barriers to travel, it is perceived that distribution channels for such media will inevitably expand. 

According to the report, approximately 100 people were publicly executed in the past year, a significant increase from the usual count of about 10 executions annually before the outbreak of COVID-19.

Back in December 2020, North Korea legislated a new law to ban watching or distributing all South Korean media content including K-dramas and movies. This year, a teenager was publicly executed for not complying with this regulation. 

However, not all public executions were held with clear charges. For unknown reasons, 7 men and 2 women were publicly executed this year according to the report. 

The report says there are many North Korean residents who suffer from insomnia or aphasia after being forced to watch a public execution.