Kim Jong Un calls K-Pop “vicious cancer”

K-pop, short for Korean Popular music, is a genre of music that originated in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in gruelling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection.

After winning fans around the world, South Korean Popular culture had entered the final frontier- North Korea; where its growing influence has prompted the leader of the totalitarian state, Kim Jong Un, to declare a new culture war to stop it. Kim Jong Un called k-pop a “vicious cancer" corrupting young North Koreans’ “attire, hairstyle, speech, behaviour”. His state media warned that if left unchecked, it would make North Korea “crumble like a damp wall.”

In recent months, hardly a day has gone by without Mr Kim or the state media railing against “anti-socialist and non-socialist” influences spreading in his country, especially South Korean movies, K-dramas and K-pop videos. As part of a panicked attempt to reassert control, Mr Kim has ordered his government to stamp out the cultural invasion. In December 2020, Kim Jong had reportedly introduced new laws stipulating that anyone caught watching or possessing South Korean content could be sentenced to up to 15 years of jail in hard labour camps.

To eradicate the ‘perverse’ K-pop phenomenon, North Korean officials have been ordered to search computers, text messages and notebooks for South Korean vernacular. People caught mimicking the ‘puppet accent' could also be banished from the cities. The censorship is anything but a peevish dictator's tantrum. It comes at a time when North Korea's economy is floundering and its diplomacy with the West has stalled, perhaps leaving the country’s youth more receptive to outside influence and challenging Mr Kim's firm grip on North Korean society.

The war against K-pop comes years after the North Korean leader was “deeply moved" following a two-hour performance by South Korean artists. He was “particularly interested” in Red Velvet, a K-pop girl group.

This is not the first time North Korea has lashed out against an “ideological and cultural invasion.” All radio and television are present to receive government broadcasts only. The government has blocked its people from using the global internet. Disciplinary squads patrol the streets, stopping men with long hair and women with skirts that are considered too short or trousers deemed too tight.

The wave of K-pop has been rising so high that even a dictator may have trouble holding back the tide. Kim Jong Un must reassert his ideological control on the young if he doesn’t want to lose the foundation for the future of his family’s dynastic control.

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