Measures include fines for parents whose children violate the bans, up to 15 years in a prison camp for those caught with media from South Korea
From a thread explaining:
Many North Koreans privately watch South Korean films and dramas smuggled on USB sticks, and fantasise about richer, better realities - demanding political change tho is of course too risky, a non-starter.
— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) January 21, 2021
But mimicking South Korean accents and words learnt from smuggled media falls in a relatively safe spot between fake loyalty and full on dissent. It is public, but is subtle and intangible enough to get away with. And it makes the speaker sound cool.
— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) January 21, 2021
When enough (esp young) NKoreans in a city mimic SKorean accents in this way it becomes common knowledge that many other people are privately engaging in illegal, subversive behaviour - watching South Korean media at night - and may not buy in fully to the official ideologies.
— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) January 21, 2021
All of which means it might make sense for Kim Jong Un to try to crack down on people speaking funny, excessively saying oppa etc.
— Sokeel Park 박석길 (@Sokeel) January 21, 2021
Difficult in practise tho. “Hey you! Did you just use a south chosun accent?!” “What me?! No sir I don’t even know what they sound like!”