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"Hallyu," or Korean wave, has been sweeping the world from Southeast Asia to Europe and further to South America. This is no exception in North Korea.
“South Korean thrillers, Iris and Athena are very popular there,” said Free North Korea Radio.
“The hair style of actress Song Hye-gyo from the soap opera, All In, is in vogue in Pyongyang, but the North Korean authorities are reinforcing its regulations,” said Daily NK.
News outlets handling news about North Koreans are delivering reports on the South Korean wave in the North through sources from the reclusive country.
Kang Dong-wan, professor of international relations at Dong-a University in Busan, and Professor Park Joung-ran from the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies affiliated with Seoul National University have published a book, “Korean Wave, Shaking Up North Korea.” The book says, “North Korean citizens are admiring South Korea with the illusion of lives of it”.
According to the book, South Korean visual media is being distributed not only to the border province of North Hamgyeong, but also to the other nine southern provinces including Pyongyang and South Hwanghae Province.
The book is based on research with in-depth interviews of 33 defectors from nine provinces in North Korea. The research results emphasize that talk of the Korean wave is not exaggerated. It turned out 50 percent of defectors enjoyed South Korean visual media more than once a week before they fled to the South.
As South Korean movies and soap operas are becoming popular, entertainers from the programs are too. Daily NK, a specialist paper on North Korea, reported last March that “two top popular TV hosts in the South, Kang Ho-dong and Yoo Jae-suk, were also famous in the North.” It also said that both would become "MCs of the Korean Peninsula." DVDs of entertainment programs, such as “Two Days and One Night” and “X-man” hosted by Kang and “Infinity Challenge” by Yoo, are selling well.
It was sailors who played significant roles in spreading South Korean Wave to the communist society. The book says that in mid-1990, the period of its worst economic hardship, North Korean sailors frequently crossed the border to Chinese towns to get food. During their visits, they were able to obtain DVDs and CDs from the South.
The book said that sales of South Korean DVDs make a good profit. This has prompted North Korea’s ruling Workers Party members to jump into the business, also helping the Korean wave become prevalent in the North.
“South Korean visual media is another window of what North Koreans see the outside world through,” said Professor Kang.
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