North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Korean Central Television)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called K-pop a “vicious cancer” corrupting young North Koreans’ “attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviors,” the New York Times reported on Thursday.
Kim or the North Korean state media has slammed “anti-socialist and nonsocialist” influences across his country, especially South Korean movies, K-dramas and K-pop videos, almost every day in recent months, the newspaper said.
In North Korea, computers, text messages, music players and notebooks are being searched for South Korean content and accents, the report said. It cited North Korean government documents smuggled out by Asia Press International, a Japan-based group of journalists that monitors North Korea.
Many North Korean women have begun calling their dates “oppa,” like South Koreans, when they are supposed to call them “comrades.” Kim has called the language “perverted,” the article said.
By Kim So-hyun (
sophie@heraldcorp.com)