Webtoon sparks controversy over North Korean executions
A webtoon released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which claims "30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas." Captured from the Korea Policy Briefing website
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) recently released a webtoon based on the "North Korea Human Rights Report" that included the claim, "30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas."
However, the Unification Ministry, which published the actual human rights report, stated that no such information is included, raising suspicions that the MCST might have fabricated the news.
According to Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who is also a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the MCST published a webtoon titled "Talking About the Lives of North Korean Residents Through the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report" on July 30. The webtoon appeared on the "Korea Policy Briefing," the official government website that introduces government policies.
In the webtoon, characters claim that "North Korea publicly executed 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas on USBs carried by balloons," and "Not only that, but just recently, 30 teenagers around the age of 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment and execution for similar reasons."
However, the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report, which the MCST cited as the basis for the webtoon, does not contain such information.
Yoon’s office inquired with the North Korean Human Rights Records Center, which operates under the Unification Ministry, whether the report mentioned "30 middle school students being shot," and the response was, "No such content is included."
A webtoon titled "Talking About the Lives of North Korean Residents Through the '2024 North Korea Human Rights Report,'" created by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which was posted on the Korea Policy Briefing website / Captured from the Korea Policy Briefing website
The 2023 report also does not contain such content. Despite this, the MCST created a booklet titled "K-Cartoon Empathy" featuring the webtoon and distributed it to places like the National Assembly Library.
When asked by Yoon's office whether the MCST fact-checked the content with the Unification Ministry, the MCST responded, "We requested verification, but there were no specific objections, so we published it." The Unification Ministry did not provide a response to related questions.
In response, Rep. Yoon said, "Information related to North Korea is released after cross-verification with North Korean defectors and mutual verification by various national intelligence agencies. It is problematic that the MCST produced a cartoon with unverified information and distributed it widely online and offline."
He further added, "Portraying it as if it were part of the thoroughly vetted North Korea Human Rights Report is a typical example of fake news."
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.