2025 Theses Bachelor's

The Formative Power of K-Content in North Korean Youth Human Rights Consciousness

Jeon, Bokyung

This paper contends that North Korean youth live a Janus-headed existence, projecting ideological conformity to the brutal Kim Jong Un regime while simultaneously cultivating rich, autonomous inner worlds. Drawing on interviews with 28 North Korean youth defectors, this study borrows Erving Goffman’s formulation of two stages––the front stage and backstage––to examine how public displays of loyalty operate on the front stage of Korean society, while assertions of human dignity and self-determination are made backstage.

Through their engagement with banned “K-content,” media products made in South Korea, North Korean youth begin to awaken to their inherent human rights––freedom of thought, expression, and cultural access––and in some cases, are impelled to fully reclaim their rights by defecting. To deepen the analysis of their covert resistance, James C. Scott’s concept of a hidden transcript and Roland Barthes’ theory of semiology are applied to the interviewee data. By building on the research of Youna Kim and Ahlam Lee and situating the stories of North Korean youth within the broader framework of international human rights, this paper argues that K-content consumption can function as a quiet but impactful mode of political resistance by way of raising rights consciousness within a totalitarian system.