In North Korea, you can be sentenced to death for watching Friends. And while I know it might sound tempting to lock people up for watching TV shows you personally find repulsive, thankfully, in America, we have that freedom (for now).

The report, which was conducted using nearly “300 interviews with people who escaped from North Korea in the past 10 years,” according to the BBC, shows that no country in the world controls its population as harshly as North Korea.

North Korea executing more people for watching foreign films and TV, UN finds https://t.co/EUg3ktNdzA

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— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 12, 2025

Kim Jong Un Declares War on “Bourgeois Words”

North Korea has officially banned terms like “hamburger,” “ice cream,” and even “karaoke.”

At the new Wonsan resort, tour guides are forced to use clumsy alternatives such as “double bread with minced beef” and “machine with screen… pic.twitter.com/NJaBbjxrfl

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 15, 2025

According to the U.N., North Korea is increasingly arresting and handing out death sentences to its citizens who “watch and or share” foreign TV shows and movies. The U.N. Human Rights Office concluded in its report that “no other population is under such restrictions in today's world” and said technology has only made the surveillance of North Koreans worse.