Foreign Porn Flows into N.Korea

Foreign pornography is spreading in North Korean market, Radio Free Asia in the U.S. reported Friday.

Quoting a North Korean source, the radio station said the regime is trying to clamp down by distributing players that will only play North Korean-made DVDs and replacing parts of foreign players to stop them from being compatible, but an increasing number of people are looking for foreign videos.

The bestsellers in the market are pornography from Japan, a resident in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, said. And many of the customers are teenagers.

A source in North Pyongan Province said, "It's easy to buy a smuggled Chinese video player, and it's possible to reproduce DVDs at home with Chinese-made burners. Foreign porn has spread so widely that any home with a player usually has one or two porn DVDs."

Parents in the North are concerned because there is no video ratings system in the North nor proper sex education for children, RFA added.

"It's difficult for North Korean residents to watch foreign TV programs, but not a few enjoy foreign porn as well as South Korean soap operas on DVDs," a North Korean defector said.