North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series "Squid Game" and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers announced in early February.

Amnesty International cited testimony from an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed for specifically watching the popular survival drama series.

It also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.

"Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings," said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.

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"I didn't receive legal punishment because we had connections," he told Amnesty International in an interview.

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Joonsik said three of his sisters’ high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families’ inability to pay bribes.

"The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections," said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International's deputy regional director.

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"This government's fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings," she added. "People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments."

Several defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.

"When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything," said Kim Eunju, 40. "People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It's ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too."

FIRST ON FOX: Chinese-funded infrastructure projects across the Pacific Islands may appear civilian on the surface but could provide future military access for Beijing, senior members of a bipartisan congressional advisory commission warned in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

Senior members of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said runways, ports and other facilities financed by the People’s Republic of China are often "dual use" and part of a broader strategic pattern that blends economic investment with long-term security objectives.

"When you see a broader trend of militarization of the region… you see a lot of activities that suggest there are at least some security and military-related interests involved," commission chair Randall Schriver said. "Even if it’s declared for civilian use… it is by its very character dual-use and could be used for military purposes."

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Schriver warned that China’s investments in the Pacific should not be viewed in isolation. "We know that China is very ambitious. We know that even civilian infrastructure projects often have strings attached," he said. "In many instances, those involve access for the Chinese military."

Commission Vice Chair Michael Kuiken said Beijing frequently pairs infrastructure financing with financial leverage. "There’s a cycle of debt diplomacy here," Kuiken said. "China loads these islands up with debt and then uses their position of weakness to gain access… to build runways, to do things with respect to ports."

"It’s a cycle that we see over and over again," he added, calling it "a flywheel of debt diplomacy. There’s a vicious rinse-and-repeat cycle here. And whether it’s Taiwan, Palau, Micronesia or the Solomon Islands, it is a playbook that the Chinese go back to every time."

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Schriver acknowledged Washington was slow to recognize the security implications of China’s expansion in the region.

"In a word, yes," he said when asked whether the U.S. reacted too slowly.

He noted the timing coincided with major U.S. military investments in Guam, even as Chinese projects advanced nearby. "While this was happening, the Chinese were making inroads in the Pacific Islands … with great proximity to Guam," he said, describing the island as central to U.S. logistics and combat operations.

Asked what would signal a shift from civilian infrastructure to operational military use, Schriver said some warning indicators are already visible.

"The practice of undersea cable cutting… has been very provocative," he said, describing it as activity that could be tied to military contingencies.

He also warned that visible deployments of Chinese military aircraft to Pacific facilities would mark a major escalation, citing a pattern previously seen in the South China Sea.

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"We’ve seen a particular pattern that wouldn’t surprise us at all to see in other parts of Oceania," Schriver said.

Kuiken urged lawmakers to increase scrutiny and transparency. "The thing members can do most easily is just ask the intelligence community for imagery and for intelligence reports … raise the alarm, shine a light on it and expose the activities," he said.

Kuiken also revealed the future hearing focused on undersea infrastructure and security risks in the region.

"Data is the lifeblood of the global economy these days," he said. "Those cables are a vital source of information… and those are really quite aggressive actions and need to be exposed."

The commission has proposed a broader U.S. response, including increased Coast Guard cooperation and expanded support for Pacific Island nations to strengthen resilience against security threats and economic pressure.

Schriver referenced a "Pacific Island Security Initiative" recommendation aimed at combining economic, law enforcement and defense engagement.

Kuiken described the approach as "a layered cake." "We want there to be a civilian aspect… a law enforcement piece… and a military piece," he said. "You sort of need to do all of them in order to really be effective and really to combat the influence of the Chinese in this space."