North Korea forbids the possession, production, distribution and importation of pornography. This is punished harshly by the government. Nevertheless, pornography is widespread in the country because people secretly import it, or locally produce it.
The possession of it first became popular amongst elites during the late 1990s, when Kim Jong Il was the leader of the country. High ranking political and military officials were the most active consumers of pornography.[ citation needed ] Today, pornography is sold openly on the China–North Korea border despite the government's attempts to curtail circulation. Most of the content consumed in North Korea is produced outside the country, with a significant part of it being Chinese bootleg recordings of poor quality. A locally produced pornographic film typically involves nude or scantily clad women dancing to music.
Sexuality is restricted in the conservative North Korean culture. Some defectors say that the lack of sex education in the country results in young people learning about sex through pornography, and also that adults watch less pornography than young people. Showing an interest in pornography may make one subject to the country's mass surveillance network. [1]
Pornographic magazines and films sold at black markets are distributed as CDs called "Sex-R" (sex CD-R) and are arranged by video quality, which is mostly poor due to most of them being cheap bootleg recordings from China. Markets and distribution methods continue to develop. [1] Unauthorized sale of pornography takes place, for instance, at the Tongil Market of Pyongyang. [2] On the China–North Korea border pornography is traded in the open. [3] Exposure to Chinese pornography has also increased the number of abortions. [4]
In the past, pornographic videos were also made in North Korea. [1] They began to appear during the leadership of Kim Jong Il, [3] who himself reportedly had a significant collection of pornographic films. [5] Domestic titles were usually immediately seized by the authorities. One domestic title, The Secret Story of the Republic , however, was smuggled to Japan and translated into Japanese by North Korean defectors. [3] The film, featuring Workers' Party of Korea officials violating women, was sold in Japan, where it came with a written disclaimer: "Not for entertainment purposes. Distributed for research". [1] North Korea has also exported pornography in an effort to gain hard currency. Some of these efforts were through North Korean websites. [6]
Watching pornography became widespread among the country's elites in the late 1990s. Thereafter, the practice has spread to other societal strata as well. Domestic pornographic works usually feature nude or bikini-wearing North Korean women dancing to music. The Literature and Art Publishing Company secretly published a pornographic book, Licentious Stories , for the use of party officials. In 2000, the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee also published a pornographic videotape for officials. Imported pornography has nowadays largely replaced domestic pornography. Political and army elites are the most active consumers of pornography. In 2007 renting a CD for one hour cost 2,000 North Korean won, and middle-schoolers were known to rent them. [7] In 1995, a pornographic film could be sold for as much as 80 dollars. In recent years, prices have fallen dramatically due to increased supply, [8] with one Chinese smuggler stating he regularly hands out porn for free for customers who buy pirated K-dramas. [9]
South Korean pornographic films are smuggled into the country. [10] Propaganda balloons sent from South Korea to the North have featured sexually explicit material to appeal to North Korean soldiers, too. [11] Henry A. Crumpton, a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations, explains that he has "never met a North Korean diplomat who did not want porn, either for personal use or resale." [12]
When North Korea sent troops to fight alongside the Russians against Ukraine in October 2024, it was reported that the Koreans were taking advantage of the superior internet service away from home by "gorging on pornography". [13]
According to the Criminal Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea:
A person who, without authorization, imports, makes, distributes or illegally keeps music, dance, drawings, photos, books, video recordings or electronic media that reflects decadent, carnal or foul contents shall be punished by short term labour for less than two years. In cases where the person commits a grave offence, he or she shall be punished by reform through labour for less than five years. In cases where such a person imports, keeps or distributes sexual video recordings, the punishment shall be reform through labour for more than five years and less than ten years.
— Article 193 (Import, Keeping and Distribution of Decadent Culture), Chapter 6 (Crimes of Impairing Socialist Culture) [14]
The law specifies that viewing such material is also illegal: [15]
A person who watches or listens to music, dance, drawings, photos, books, video recordings or electronic media that reflects decadent, carnal or foul contents or who performs such acts himself or herself shall be punished by short term labour for less than two years. In cases where the person commits a grave offence, he or she shall be punished by reform through labour for less than five years.
— Article 194 (Conduct of Decadent Acts) [14]
The State Security Department is tasked with monitoring illegal imports of pornographic materials. Involvement in illegal import results in the culprit being shot or sent to a kyohwaso (re-education camp) for 10 to 15 years. [16] Executions of several persons accused of watching or distributing pornography took place in late 2013. [17] It is illegal for tourists to bring pornography into the country.[ citation needed ] Access to "sex and adult websites" on the Internet has been blocked from the country, [18] but in the past BitTorrent downloads of pornography have been detected, likely relating to foreigners residing in Pyongyang. [19] Likewise, North Koreans living near the border with China use mobile phones equipped with Chinese SIM cards to access Chinese porn sites. [20]
When Kim Jong Un's uncle Jang Song-thaek was executed in 2013, distributing pornography was counted among his crimes. [21]
North Korea has ratified the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, [22] but has enacted no legislation specific to child pornography. [23]
Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.
Definitions and restrictions on pornography vary across jurisdictions. The production, distribution, and possession of pornographic films, photographs, and similar material are activities that are legal in many but not all countries, providing that any specific people featured in the material have consented to being included and are above a certain age. Various other restrictions often apply as well. The minimum age requirement for performers is most typically 18 years.
Pornography has been dominated by a few pan-European producers and distributors, the most notable of which is the Private Media Group that successfully claimed the position previously held by Color Climax Corporation in the early 1990s. Most European countries also have local pornography producers, from Portugal to Serbia, who face varying levels of competition with international producers. The legal status of pornography varies widely in Europe; its production and distribution are illegal in countries such as Ukraine, Belarus and Bulgaria, while Hungary has liberal pornography laws.
Yodok concentration camp was a kwalliso in North Korea. The official name was Kwan-li-so No. 15. The camp was used to segregate those seen as enemies of the state, punish them for political misdemeanors, and put them to hard labour. It was closed down in 2014.
The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information at its source. A typical example of this was the death of Kim Jong Il, news of which was not divulged until two days after it occurred. Kim Jong Un, who replaced his father as the leader, has largely followed in the footsteps of both his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father. However, new technologies are being made more freely available in the country. State-run media outlets are setting up websites, while mobile phone ownership in the country has escalated rapidly. "There is no country which monopolizes and controls successfully the internet and information as North Korea does," said Kang Shin-sam, an expert on North Korean technology and co-head of the International Solidarity for Freedom of Information in North Korea, a nonprofit based in South Korea. North Korea has about four million mobile-phone subscribers circa 2022—roughly one-sixth of the population and four times the number in 2012, according to an estimate by Kim Yon-ho, a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Kim Jong Un is a North Korean politician who has been dictator of North Korea since December 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim Jong Il, who was the second supreme leader of North Korea, and a grandson of Kim Il Sung, the founder and first supreme leader of the country.
North Korea ranks among some of the most extreme censorship in the world, with the government able to take strict control over communications. North Korea sits at one of the lowest places of Reporters Without Borders' 2024 Press Freedom Index, ranking 177 out of the 180 countries investigated.
Jang Song-thaek was a North Korean politician. He was married to Kim Kyong-hui, the only daughter of North Korean premier Kim Il Sung and his first wife Kim Jong Suk, and only sister of North Korean general secretary Kim Jong Il. He was therefore the uncle of the current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.
The Ministry of State Security of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the secret police agency of North Korea. It is an autonomous agency of the North Korean government reporting directly to the Supreme Leader. The agency is reputed to be one of the most brutal secret police forces in the world, and it has been involved in numerous human rights abuses.
Kotjebi, kotchebi, or ggotjebi is a Korean term for North Korean homeless people, given because of the Kotjebi's constant search for food and shelter. The term was originally used in reference to homeless children. The homeless elderly are known by the related term Noin Kotjebi.
Prostitution in North Korea is illegal and is not visible to visitors. Accounts given by some North Korean defectors say that a collection of women called the kippumjo provided sexual entertainment to high-ranking officials until 2011. Meanwhile, some North Korean women who migrate to China become involved in prostitution.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in North Korea. It is used for many offences, such as grand theft, murder, rape, drug smuggling, treason, espionage, political dissent, defection, piracy, consumption of media not approved by the government and proselytizing religious beliefs that contradict the practiced Juche ideology. Owing to the secrecy of the North Korean government, working knowledge of the topic depends heavily on anonymous sources, accounts of defectors and reports by Radio Free Asia, a United States government-funded news service that operates in East Asia. The country allegedly carries out public executions, which, if true, makes North Korea one of the last four countries that still performs public executions, the other three being Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, but this has been disputed by some defector accounts.
Pornography in Turkey has been produced since the 1970s. In fact, Turkey remains just one of two Middle Eastern countries where porn is not banned outright, including Israel. But access to pornographic sites is blocked. According to a presentation on the "conscious use of the Internet and secure Internet service," made by the Telecommunications Department (TIB) of the Turkish Parliament, 2 million online users watch pornographic films each minute in Turkey.
Hyon Song-wol is a North Korean singer, band leader, and politician. She is the leader of the Moranbong Band and of the Samjiyon Orchestra. She was formerly a featured vocalist for the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble in the early 2000s, a pop group which found fame in North Korea in the late 1980s and 1990s. She has been a member in the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea since 2017.
Pornography in Asia includes pornography created in Asia, watched in Asia, or consumed or displayed in other parts of the world as one or more of the genres of Asian pornography.
Media coverage of North Korea is hampered by an extreme lack of reliable information, coupled with an abundant number of sensationalist falsehoods. There are a number of reasons for this lack of information and incorrect stories.
Jangmadang are North Korean local markets, farmers' markets, black markets and bazaars. Since the North Korean famine in the 1990s, they have formed a large informal economy, and the government has become more lenient towards them. However, merchants still face heavy regulations. A majority of North Koreans have become dependent on jangmadang for their survival.
Tobacco smoking is popular in North Korea and culturally acceptable among men, but not for women. As of 2019, some 43.6% of men are reported to smoke daily, whilst in contrast only 4.5% of women smoke daily, with most of these being older women from rural areas. Smoking is a leading cause of death in North Korea, and as of 2021 mortality figures indicate that 14.2% of North Koreans die due to smoking-related causes, which is the 6th highest rate after China, Greenland, Kiribati, Denmark and Micronesia. There are tobacco control programs in North Korea, and although smoking was not prohibited in all public spaces, the smoking rates have declined since their peak in the 2000s.
Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il badges are lapel pins with portraits depicting either one or both of the Eternal Leaders of North Korea, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The badges have been common since the late 1960s, and are produced by the Mansudae Art Studio. There are more than 20 different designs, some of which are more common than others. Common examples include red flag-shaped pins depicting either Eternal President Kim Il Sung or Eternal General Secretary Kim Jong Il, smaller circular pins with the same portraits on white backgrounds, and larger flag-shaped pins depicting both leaders.
Pak Chun-hong was a North Korean Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea politician who was reportedly purged with Jang Song-thaek and his associates.
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