[Big read] Can South Korean dramas bring down the North Korean dictatorship?

Tae Yong-ho, former North Korean deputy ambassador to the UK who defected to South Korea in 2016, once described that the influence of the Korean Wave is, to an extent, even more powerful than nuclear weapons. 

In a 10 July report by South Korean television channel TV Chosun, intelligence officials claimed that around 30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas. The students reportedly watched the shows from USB drives that were sent into North Korea via balloons by defector groups from South Korea.

Although it is difficult to ascertain whether these executions actually happened, this is not the first account of severe punishment by the North Korean government for those caught watching South Korean dramas. 

In January, the BBC released a video purportedly filmed in 2022 that depicted two 16-year-old boys in cuffs being publicly tried in an outdoor stadium for watching and distributing South Korean dramas. The stadium was filled with hundreds of students, who watched as uniformed officers criticised the boys for not “deeply reflecting on their mistakes”. The boys were ultimately sentenced to 12 years of hard labour.

Since 2019, North Korea has enacted several laws to strictly regulate the inflow of external information and South Korean culture. In April 2019, North Korea established the “Mass Reporting Law”, calling on citizens to report any acts of introducing, viewing or spreading foreign information and culture. In December 2020, North Korea further introduced the “Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act”, which stipulated the death penalty for those caught distributing South Korean videos, and up to 15 years of imprisonment for viewers of these materials. 

North Korea later enacted the “Youth Education Guarantee Act” as well as the “Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act”, which banned the use of South Korean accent.

In June, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification released a report on North Korean human rights with interviews of 649 defectors, stating that North Korea was intensifying its efforts to crack down on the spread of the Korean Wave. TV Chosun cited testimony from a defector claiming that about 70% of those publicly executed in North Korea were due to their exposure to the Korean Wave.

Online media outlet Daily NK also reported in January that sources indicated that among the nine “re-education centres” in North Korea, prisoners detained for violating the “Law on the Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture” made up the largest proportion.

In December 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced the abandonment of the North-South unification policy, and further stated that the relations between North and South Korea are no longer those between people of the same nation but one between states who are at war. This move is seen as an attempt to portray South Korea as the main enemy, aiming to gradually eliminate the admiration and longing among North Korean residents — especially the younger generation — for South Korea.

Experts on North Korea believe that the regime’s intensified crackdown on the Korean Wave, even to the extent of enacting relevant legislation, can be seen as an acknowledgment of its influence. It also highlights the regime’s deep concern that the flow of external information could weaken governmental ideological control and social stability.

The spread of the Korean Wave in North Korea is closely related to the socioeconomic changes in the country. In the late 1990s, North Korea experienced a severe famine, the “Arduous March”, that led to the deaths of at least 600,000 people. Some experts estimated the death toll to be as high as two million. With the collapse of the state food distribution system, informal markets, or Jangmadang, emerged across North Korea, where people not only acquired essential goods but also gained access to external information and culture.

Professor Jeon Young-sun from the Institute of Humanities for Unification at Konkuk University told Lianhe Zaobao that after South Korea and China established diplomatic relations in 1992, the Korean Wave infiltrated North Korea through the ethnic Korean population in Northeast China. These ethnic Koreans became a bridge for the spread of South Korean popular culture. 

Jeon added, “The further opening of North Korean market economies, along with the easing of restrictions on private markets under Kim Jong-un’s leadership, has provided greater space for the influx of external information.”

He noted that in the 2000s, relations between South and North Korea briefly eased, allowing the Korean Wave to spread widely through illegal channels, which had a significant impact on the “Jangmadang generation” that had experienced the Arduous March.

This generation, born in the 1980s and growing up during the famine of the late 1990s, had a strong desire for external information and culture. As the Korean Wave dramas and entertainment were more appealing than North Korea’s official propaganda, they quickly won the affection and following of the “Jangmadang generation”.

The continuous influx of South Korean pop culture has had some influence on the younger generation in North Korea. Jeon stated, “North Korean youths have not only started to imitate the external traits of South Koreans such as accents and fashion, more importantly, their thoughts and perceptions have undergone profound changes.”

At a seminar held in early October, Kim Kyou-hyun, former director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, stated that the “Jangmadang generation” in North Korea accounted for 29% of the country’s total population of approximately 25.7 million people, with ages ranging from 25 to 44 years old. During the Arduous March, they did not receive government aid and relied on the markets for their livelihood.

Kim analysed that the “Jangmadang generation” appears to obey the party’s instructions, but this is due to giving in and self-protection amid the high-pressure political environment. In fact, they are dissatisfied with the regime and may pose a challenge to Kim Jong-un’s rule.

According to official data from South Korea, among the 196 defectors who escaped from North Korea in 2023, half were young people in their 20s and 30s, as well as high-ranking officials. A survey conducted by the South Korean government in February this year among 6,351 defectors showed that 83% of them had watched foreign films and TV shows while in North Korea.

In August, South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said at a press conference for foreign media that these data reflect the dissatisfaction of North Korea’s younger generation with the status quo, as well as their desire for freedom and a better life. It also highlights the intense competition between North Korea’s mainstream culture and South Korean popular culture.

Watching the police protect protesting workers instead of suppressing them in Korean dramas had a profound impact on Park Yoo-sung, prompting him to rethink his life in North Korea.

Park, 34, defected to South Korea in 2008 and gained fame after producing Crocodiles in Mekong River, a documentary based on his experience escaping through China, Laos and Thailand.

He told Lianhe Zaobao, “When I was in North Korea, I watched a lot of Korean dramas such as Something Happened in Bali and Stairway to Heaven. I probably watched more than South Koreans themselves. Watching these shows was like having a ray of light illuminating the closed-off life in North Korea. I believe North Korean youths today feel the same.”

He pointed out that the impact of the Korean Wave on North Korea’s young generation goes beyond superficial entertainment, profoundly shifting their understanding of the world, freedom, love and society. It even ignites their desire and dreams for the future.

Park added, “When North Koreans watch Korean dramas, they could suddenly realise the problems in their society, like when I saw workers in one show protesting and the police protecting them instead of suppressing them, which shocked me. Although such awakening requires a complex psychological process to eventually decide to defect, Korean dramas have transcended entertainment in North Korea, inspiring people to question the status quo.”

Kang Gyu-ri (pseudonym), 24, defected to South Korea in October last year after being strongly inspired by Korean TV programmes such as Hometown Report, which showed the daily lives of South Korean residents, leading her to take the risk of escaping North Korea.

Kang comes from a seaside village in South Hamgyong province, North Korea. She crossed the northern boundary in the eastern waters of the Korean peninsula on a small wooden boat and made her way south. To protect her family still in North Korea, she wore sunglasses throughout the press conference arranged by KBS’s Unification Media Group on 8 October.

In her home in North Korea, she had a television that was smuggled in from China that was missing the software required by the North Korean government to block South Korean signals, allowing her to receive and watch South Korean programmes.

Kang said, “Young people in North Korea are increasingly influenced by South Korean pop culture, using polite expressions from South Korea in daily conversations and text messages. However, since 2022, authorities have tightened surveillance and punishment, strictly prohibiting any South Korean-style expressions. Watching foreign video content is extremely dangerous in North Korea, and if discovered, one could face the death penalty.”

Kang said three of her friends were executed for watching foreign videos — they were only 19, 20 and 23 years old.

Recalling her life in North Korea, she described it like “having your face wrapped in plastic with only a few pinholes to breathe”. It was this oppressive environment that motivated her to take the risk to escape North Korea.

Ironically, since Kim Jong-un came to power, there has been a focus on developing a “knowledge economy”, and the government’s established information and communication infrastructure has created the conditions for the infiltration of external culture.

Daily NK president Lee Kwang-baek told Lianhe Zaobao, “Since North Korea began importing parts from China in 2018, it has been assembling and producing televisions, USB flash drives and SD cards within the country. Although North Korea strictly controls information dissemination, the proliferation of these electronic devices has enhanced the ability of North Korean residents to access external information and digital content.”

A young North Korean defector in their 20s told Lianhe Zaobao, “Although North Korea’s control is becoming increasingly stringent, with more advanced techniques and methods, the technology that youths utilise to sneak a peek at Korean dramas is also advancing. Micro SD cards and other small storage devices are easy to hide and can be easily swallowed to avoid being caught in the event of a security check.”

Requesting anonymity, this North Korean defector said that purchasing and watching Korean Wave films and dramas is no longer a secret activity done alone; North Koreans now involve their friends to share the risk. 

“Usually, two or three people, or even more, will pool their money to buy the illegal videos, allowing them to share both the costs and the risks. Everyone has developed this mentality: we are in the same boat; if we get caught, none of us can escape,” the defector said.

Will the spread of South Korean popular culture become a driving force behind the collapse of the North Korean regime? Experts offer differing opinions, reflecting various understandings of the stability of the regime.

Some experts think that the Korean Wave could potentially undermine the North Korean regime. Through exposure to South Korean dramas, films, music and other cultural products, North Korean youths can learn about the different lifestyles of the outside world, especially South Korea’s modern, open and affluent lifestyle. This could weaken the North Korean government’s propaganda and ideological control, leading people to question the existing regime and even inciting feelings of resistance, triggering unrest in North Korean society.   

Jeon Sun-young, a research fellow at the Soongsil Institute for Peace and Unification, said in an interview with South Korean media that North Korean authorities have already realised that the spread of the Korean Wave poses a serious challenge to their rule. The continuous influx of South Korean popular culture is changing the lifestyles of North Koreans and gradually awakening their awareness of freedom and human rights. This shift in mindset could shake the political foundation of North Korea. 

Jeon thinks that the influx of South Korean culture is a key force driving social change in North Korea, as “a regime that has lost the support of its people cannot survive in the long term, even if it relies on terror to maintain control”.

However, Lim Eul-chul, an associate professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies, believes that the infiltration of the Korean Wave cannot be directly linked to changes in the political consciousness of North Koreans. 

Lim told Lianhe Zaobao that in North Korea, openly expressing political views that contradict the official ideology is an extremely dangerous act. Although the Korean Wave has somewhat changed the culture and habits of North Koreans, more time and conditions are needed for this to evolve into an awakening of political consciousness.

Konkuk University’s Jeon Young-sun also pointed out that North Korea follows a “collective hereditary system” where not only the Kim family, but also the “revolutionary aristocracy”, who participated in the revolution alongside Kim Il-sung (Kim Jong-un’s grandfather), had passed down their official positions from one generation to the next. 

For example, the father of Kim Jong-un’s second-in-command Choe Ryong-hae, Choe Hyon, was a core member in the revolution alongside Kim Il-sung. These families form strong power structures by passing down power and status across generations. 

This type of system ensures loyalty and support for the regime by providing relatively stable living conditions. For the North Korean revolutionary aristocracy, there are still certain guarantees in their lives, which makes it less likely for the system to collapse easily. 

He said, “North Korean society is highly closed off, so it is difficult for the outside world to accurately gauge the extent and influence of the spread of the Korean Wave. To a certain extent, the Korean Wave may have even alleviated the North Koreans’ dissatisfaction with the existing regime, offering them a temporary escape from the hardships of life. Whether these cultural influences can lead to substantial changes within North Korea requires further observation and research.”

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “韩流吹皱一池“朝”水 年轻人爱 金正恩忧”.

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