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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks with South Korean entertainers, including members of K-pop group Red Velvet, after their concert in Pyongyang, in this April 2018 file photo. Yonhap |
By Yoon Ja-young
A recent media report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined K-pop as a "vicious cancer" is shedding spotlight on the regime's culture war.
The New York Times reported on June 11 that Kim called South Korean pop music a "vicious cancer" corrupting young North Koreans, declaring a war to stop it, with its state media warning that the South's entertainment business would eventually make North Korea "crumble like a damp wall."
The report reflects the far-reaching influence of South Korean pop music in North Korea. According to a 2018 survey on North Korean defectors by Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, 41.4 percent said that they frequently consumed South Korean TV programs, films, dramas and songs, while 40.2 percent said that they had consumed those just once or twice. Only 18.4 percent said that they had no experience consuming them at all. Oh Chong-song, a North Korean soldier who fled to the South by crossing the border through the joint security area (JSA) in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in November 2017, also said that he had saved about 500 South Korean pop songs on a USB device and listened to them.
The media report indicates that the North's propaganda claims that South Koreans are living like beggars aren't working anymore, and that, as a result, the regime is only turning toward tougher measures.
According to Rep. Ha Tae-kyung of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported in February that North Korea had strengthened its penalties against consumers of South Korean pop culture. According to the new law, those who introduce and distribute South Korean videos in North Korea can face the death penalty, while those simply consuming South Korean content can face up to 15 years in a labor camp ― tougher than the previous penalty of 5 years. Daily NK, a Seoul-based, Korean-language news website specializing in North Korean news, reported on June 11 that four North Koreans in their early 20s were sentenced to between 10 to 12 years in labor camps for watching South Korean dramas.
It is ironic though that the North Korean leader himself, as well as his late father, Kim Jong-il, were known to be consumers of South Korean pop culture. The junior Kim reportedly requested "Belated Regret," a South Korean ballad released by sibling duo Hyeoni and Deoki in 1985, when South Korean musicians were performing in Pyongyang in 2018. Late former President Roh Moo-hyun presented the senior Kim, known to be avid fan of South Korean movies and dramas, with South Korean DVDs, when he was visiting North Korea for summit in 2007.
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