Parents in North Korea to face jail term if they allow their children to watch Hollywood films

Parents who let their children watch Hollywood blockbusters will be sent to prison, North Korea has announced.

Kim Jong-un is carrying out a vicious crackdown against foreign films and TV series in Pyongyang. The regime is warning parents about facing harsh punishment if their kids are caught watching illicit overseas films or found in possession of them, even if it's a first offence.

Previously, parents were able to get away with a stern warning if their children were found in possession of media smuggled into the North from overseas. However, as the regime intensifies its efforts to eradicate foreign content, it will no longer be lenient with them and those who are caught will be slammed with harsh punishments.

Sources inside the Hermit Kingdom stated that Pyongyang has rolled out "Inminban," which is a compulsory neighbourhood watch meeting where parents are being warned and pressured to raise their children in accordance with Kim's socialist ideals.

The parents of a son or a daughter found watching a Hollywood film or South Korean content will end up being sentenced to six months in a forced labour camp. However, the children who watched it will face harsher punishment of a five-year sentence in prison camps.

Along with the restrictions on watching films, Kim also issued a wave of harsher punishments relating to dance, talking, and singing. Anyone who is found imitating or picking up on South Korean slangs or accents risk being punished to years of hard labour in prison camps. Moreover, their parents will also be held responsible and punished.

The conditions of North Korean prisons are unsanitary and life-threatening. Many of it's prisoners die each year as a result of being subjected to starvation, torture and inhumane treatment.

According to reports, parents are being instructed to educate their children "properly" in keeping with the country's socialist ideals.

"The host of the meeting emphasises parental responsibility, saying that education for children begins at home", a source told Radio Free Asia. "If parents do not educate their children from moment to moment, they will dance and sing of capitalism and become anti-socialists".

"Some of the parents here don't even know that their children are growing up crooked because they are so occupied with making money in their businesses in the marketplace, and neglect their children's education," said another source, while adding that the residents were criticising the government for trying to control teenagers' emotions by placing the responsibility on their parents.

While the parents and children who are found guilty of watching foreign films will be sentenced to prison camps, those found guilty of smuggling foreign media into the country risk being executed.

In October last year, two teenagers were executed by a firing squad in the border city of Hyesan after the regime deemed them guilty of sharing South Korean films.