According to a new report that includes testimony from a defector, the North Korean dictator is trying to stop "foreign influences" by banning foreign television, hair cuts, and even birthday parties.
Pyongyang tells the secret squads, which are called "gruppa" or "non-socialist groups," to look for people who break the official Communist Party ideology.
"The groups work as a secret tool that the government uses to reach its ultimate goals of all-around surveillance and being able to keep a close eye on every single resident," the report says.
Foreign media, especially anything that is seen as "Western," is banned in North Korea. Any kind of opposition is punished harshly.
Kim Jong Un thinks of South Korea as an American puppet state, and he is very worried about the influence that South Korean content from China could have on his country.
Any sign that someone might have watched or read media from the South has led to harsh punishments for a long time now.
The Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), which is based in Seoul, says that Kim is getting even more in control of the gruppa.
Citizens are put on trial for things like leaving the country, selling drugs, smuggling drugs, begging, not going to work, traffic violations, adultery, dying one's hair, religious practices, and taking part in "decadent culture," which can include going to parties.
"It's worse than the time of Kim Jong Il," said one person whose words were used in the report. "The border has become tighter, more barbed wire fences have been installed. Also, they were told to shoot anyone who tried to cross the border.
"[...] I've heard that people have been shot for spreading sexually explicit content. After Kim Jong Un took office, one person was put to death because he watched pornographic movies and gave prostitutes a place to stay.
"First, they look at your clothes. Then, what kind of music you like, what kind of movies you watch, and whether or not you've dyed your hair [...] You cannot have a birthday party as a group," the defector said, according to the report.
"They keep telling us not to get together and drink because drunk people will always end up singing one or two South Korean songs."
The report said that the smuggling and distribution of South Korean media are taking up more and more of the secret squads' time.
Songs, movies, and TV shows that aren't allowed in the country, like "Squid Game" or "Crash Landing on You," are sometimes brought in on USB flash drives.
One thing the secret squads do is cut the power to people's homes if they think they are watching banned media. This keeps them from taking DVDs or videotapes out of the player and hiding their "guilt."
People can get demoted at work, fired, or even sent to a re-education or labor camp as a punishment. People could be put to death by firing squad in the worst cases, like if they were caught watching pornographic movies.
"If you watch sexual media in North Korea, you could get a "reform through labor" sentence for life or even be shot by a firing squad. Another defector said that if you watch typical South Korean or American media, you will get a sentence of less than ten years of "reform through labor."
It was reported earlier this month that four college students were kicked out of school and sent to work in a coal mine because they sounded like they had watched too much foreign TV because they spoke with accents or used phrases from the South.
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