“Set your eyes upon the world” the regime said, so why does watching a TV drama carry a 10-year sentence?
The slogan reads “Plant your feet firmly on your own soil, and set your eyes upon the world’ (Image: zhuanlan)
What is life? For me, it is a journey of discovery, of understanding what I am good at and enjoy, and then engaging in work and hobbies that reflect my interest and ability.
In some societies, though, such an ordinary life is not allowed. A place that appears orderly on the surface may, in reality, be a prison without bars. In a world where personal tastes are criminalized and subject to surveillance, the phrase “a happy life” becomes nothing more than an empty echo.
In December 2009, North Korea’s then-leader Kim Jong-il remarked, “Plant your feet firmly on your own soil, and set your eyes upon the world.” This comment made sense, as a call to young people to remain grounded in reality while learning from global developments and advanced cultures. However, in its context in North Korea, it was pure deception.
The eyes of the people were deliberately blindfolded. The freedom to learn never existed. External ideas and cultures were defined as threats to the nation, and merely accessing them became grounds for harsh punishment.
Who, then, is North Korea’s proclaimed socialism truly for? Ideologically, it emphasizes equality and community, yet in reality, it functions as a tool to justify control and domination by a privileged ruling class.
A striking example is the “Law on the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture.” Since its implementation in 2020, control over the thoughts and cultural lives of citizens has intensified dramatically. “Anti-socialist inspection units” have penetrated deep into everyday life, monitoring and regulating the smallest personal preferences and choices. Individual lives are being carved into small pieces under the constant scrutiny of the state.
The sharp edge of this crackdown is particularly aimed at young people who are more familiar with external culture. In recent years, secretly watching South Korean dramas has become an open secret among North Korean youth. But the consequences are severe.
In 2022, there was a tragic case in which people in their twenties were sentenced to ten years in prison simply for watching South Korean dramas. How are we to comprehend a reality where young people must spend the most precious years of their lives behind cold prison walls for the mere act of consuming video content?
The North Korean authorities claim to prioritize learning, yet in reality, the education they offer is limited to indoctrination that serves to protect the regime.
While the leaders portray South Korea as a destitute society where people are too poor to go to school, they react with malevolent hysteria to something as simple as a TV drama.
Paradoxically, this reaction reveals the regime’s awareness that it can only survive through continued deception. Knowing the system could collapse like a house of cards the moment truth enters, leaders desperately prevent people from looking beyond the horizon.
Curiosity about the world is a fundamental human instinct. It can never properly be considered a crime. Yet in North Korea, just having the desire becomes grounds for punishment. Under constant surveillance and control, individual dreams are worn down, and life is reduced from a meaningful journey to a desperate struggle for survival.
In a place where the freedom to learn, enjoy, and choose is denied, human dignity loses its foundation.
This is not a special story. It is a fragment of the painful daily reality experienced by countless young people in the North at this very moment.
The reason we must listen to their voices is clear. We must not stop telling their stories until the slogan “Set your eyes upon the world” ceases to be a deception and stands as truth.
Kim Yumi, a North Korean defector, was born and raised in Haeju, South Hwanghae Province, a coastal military area. Growing up near a naval base, she was able to secretly watch South Korean news programs and TV shows, thereby uncovering the vibrant, democratic society of South Korea. Yumi and her husband made the brave decision to escape North Korea and seek a better future. Now in Seoul, she is actively involved in raising awareness about the realities of life in North Korea, especially on her YouTube channel, “@KimYumiTV.”
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