Police in Pyongsong city, South Pyongan province, arrested two young North Korean men in June 2026. A friend who had watched banned South Korean dramas with them turned himself in first, overcome with guilt, a source told Daily NK.
A source in South Pyongan province said on Wednesday that the Ministry of Social Security, North Korea’s police agency, arrested the two men at the end of last month. Officers accused them of secretly watching a stack of what North Korean authorities call “impure recorded material,” a term the state uses for foreign videos it deems politically corrupting. The stack included a South Korean drama that has recently exploded in popularity among young North Koreans.
The two men had been close friends since their school days. They had secretly watched videos smuggled in from outside North Korea for years, the source said. In mid-June, feeling it was a shame to keep the show to themselves, they invited a third close friend to watch with them.
The drama the three watched has been circulating by word of mouth among North Korean youth under the nickname “The King’s Chef.” The source said it appears to be a North Korean name for “The Tyrant’s Chef,” a series that was a major hit in South Korea last year.
The show follows lavish royal cuisine alongside a tender, tension-filled romance between its two leads. North Korean youth reportedly describe it as so addictive that “once you start watching, you can’t look away.”
Drama trend spreads fast among North Korean youth
The case broke out just as the drama was spreading rapidly among young North Koreans, the source said. Some have started recreating dishes shown in the show. Others have started imitating the polished way its characters speak.
The break in the case came from the third friend, the one who had been invited to watch. Guilt overwhelmed him, and he turned himself in to police.
That friend had learned the other two had secretly watched outside videos together for years, the source said. He worried the habit would eventually catch up with them, and that he would be implicated along with them if it did. He spent several anxious days weighing what to do, then went to police.
He confessed his own wrongdoing first and pleaded for leniency, the source said. He then reported the other two men for what North Korean authorities call “non-socialist” behavior, a catchall term for conduct seen as ideologically deviant. He also agreed to help police stage a raid. At the end of June, he arranged a day to watch the illegal videos with the two friends again. Police officers burst in mid-viewing and arrested the pair.
Police released the friend who turned himself in without further consequences, the source said. The other two men now face house searches and intensive questioning.
“The case is still under investigation,” the source said. “The families of the two arrested men fear their entire households could be expelled from Pyongsong and sent to a poorer, more remote part of the country because of this.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
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July 16, 2026 at 10:51PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)