North Korea's Kim Jong Un wants to ban K-Pop music, calls it 'Vicious Cancer'

North Korea's Kim Jong Un wants to ban K-Pop music, calls it 'Vicious Cancer'

The provincial Youth League has also issued an order on hairstyles it deems proper to sport.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly termed K-pop or Korean pop music, the popular music genre from South Korea a ‘vicious cancer’ which is corrupting the nation’s youth and their culture, keeping in line with the country’s crackdown on ‘capitalistic lifestyle’ and Western influences on youths. The state run newspaper had recently warned the nation of doing more to stop “capitalistic culture from seeping into the country", as was reported by South Korean broadcaster Yonhap news agency.

The New York Times reported that Kim Jong Un said the music and its influence harmed the ‘attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviors’ of North Koreans and that it could also make North Korea ‘crumble like a damp wall’.

But Kim Jong Un’s current dislike for South Korean music genre comes years after the former had attended performances by the artists from South Korea and has been ‘deeply moved’ by it, the report said. The North Korean state news agency KCNA had reported in 2018 that artists from South Korea including members of bands such as Red Velvet and Cho Yong Pil, visited the North and performed in Pyongyang. Kim was also the first North Korean leader ever to attend a show by entertainers from the South.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un wants to ban K-Pop music, calls it 'Vicious Cancer'
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In recent months, Kim Jong Un had launched a crackdown on South Korean pop culture, including movies, K-dramas and K-pop videos. Under the same, North Korean authorities have also outlawed ‘non-socialist’ hairstyles such as the spike and mullet along with dyed hair. As part of the new laws, men and women can only sport one of the 215 other hairstyles authorised.

The provincial Youth League has also issued an order on hairstyles it deems proper to sport. Hairstyles such as mullets and spikes have been considered ‘anti-social’.

Ripped or skinny jeans, T-shirts sporting slogans and nose and lip piercings have also been banned. Officials in North Korea are also cracking down on pop music after the popularity of South Korean K-pop bands such as BTS and Blackpink.

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