Time Magazine says North Koreans are big fans of South Korean pop culture and soap operas.

The magazine quoted a North Korean escapee in a recent report as saying that North Koreans watch foreign films and dramas in secret and that copies of South Korean movies and soap operas sell at steep prices.

According to the defector, DVDs of American movies and dramas are sold for about 400 won on the black market, while South Korean ones go for 44-hundred won because of the higher risk of execution for smuggling them in.

Time said that one decade ago, North Koreans were sentenced to five years in a prison camp if they were caught watching movies or dramas originating from outside North Korea, but that now the punishment is a sentence of up to three months.