김정은 Regime은 한국을 비롯한 서방세계의 젊은이들 사이에서 유행하고있는 각종 엔터테인먼트가 북한으로 유입되여, 북한 젊은이들이 이에 현혹되면 북한체제를 이끌어가는 이데올로기 정책 집행에 커다란 혼란이 오는것이 두려워, 결국 통제가 안될것을 잘알고있기에, 파리잡듯이 가장 무자비한 철권을 휘두르는 것이다.
김정은이는 요즘 Covid19 Pandemic으로, 외부세계와 완전 차단된 상태에서, 주거 환경도 열악한 이중고에 시달리면서, 백신도 없어 속수무책으로 북한 전체가 초토화 되고 있는데, 그에게 또 걱저거리가 생겨서 주민들 단속에 초강경책을 쓰고 있다고 한다.
북한( North Korea )은 대한민국으로 부터 유입되는 패션, 대중음악, 헤어스타일과 대화속에 사용하는 슬랭어까지 다 포함하여, 주민들이 이들을 접촉하지 못하도록 평상시보다 두배 이상 더 심하게 단속을 하고 있다. 를
한국은 지난 10여년 동안에 K-pop과 K-drama를 포함한, 아무도 따라올수없는 엄청난 문화적 폭발력을 생산하여 전세계로 확산시켜 열광적인 팬들을 환호를 받고 있다. 북한은 한국과 국경을 접하고 있어 요즘은 그영향력을, SNS때문에 크게 받아 이를 막을려고 무진 노력을 기울리고 있다.
북한은 지난 수십년동안, 외부세계와 북한간에 유입 또는 유츨하고있는 모든 정보들을 완전차단하여 오늘에 이르고 있다. 외국으로부터의 영화 또는 서적들의 반입이, 국가정책적으로 예외시킨 몇개를 제외하고, 완전 금지되여있는데, 만약에 발각되면 중한 형벌에 처하고 있다고, 한 탈북자는 비참함을 설명한다.
최근에는 규제를 약간 완화시켜 중국과의 교류를 확대하고 있는 셈이다. 그결과로 한국의 pop문화를 포함한 한국의 여러 연예관련물들이 시험적으로 허용되고있어, 은둔의 왕국으로 유입되고있는 형국이다. 특히 최근 몇년간은 남북한간에 교류가 거의 끊겨있는 점을 감안할때, 중국을 통한 유입은, 그의미가 크다고 하겠다.
이달초 국회의원 '하태경'이 국정원에서 브리핑을 받은후 발표한바에 의하면, 북한 김정은 regime은 북한 젊은이들에게 복장과 언어사용에 철저한 제재를 가하고 있다는 것이다. 예를 들면 한국에서는 연인들끼리 '오빠'라는 단어를 사랑의 표시로 많이 사용하고 있는데, 북한에서는 철저히 금지하고 있으며 대신에 북한 여성들은 서로 사귀는 연인사이에서 '남성동지'라른 말만 허용되고 있다고 한다.
북한에서 제작된 흑색선전용 비디오를 보면, 주민들의 관심을 끌수있는 '외국의 유행'를 사용하는 행동을 맹렬히 비난하고 있었다고한다. 이러한 명령을 어기면 '혁명의 반역자'로 낙인 찍어 중형에 처한다고, '하'의원은 국정원의 브리핑을 인용했다.
지난 일요일자 북괴체제선전 신문, 로동신문은 외국의 생활방식을 흉내내는것을 반역이라고 질타했으며, 젊은이들은 조국의 요구에 충실히 따라야 한다고 강요했었다.
왜 북한에서는 헤어스타일과 대중음악이 김정은 Regime에 걸림돌이 되는가!
남북한간의 관계는 1953년에 맺어진 휴전협정으로 전쟁이 멈춘이후로 서로 너무도 많이 다른 상황으로 유지돼 왔다. 평화협정이 맺어지지 않고 휴전상태로 있다는것은 공식적으로는 전쟁이 끝나지 않았다는 뜻이기도하다.
북한은 휴전이 맺어진 이후 한때는 동아시아에서 가장 산업이 발달된 나라들중의 하나였었다 라고, 서울의 국민대학에서 교수로 있으면서 Korea Risk Group의 책임자인 Andrei Lankov 씨가 설명한다. 그러나 수십년간 지구촌으로 부터 스스로 고립된 정책을 시행해온후 주민들은 지구상에서 가장 가난한 삶을 살아가고 있다.
북한의 경제상황은 구쏘련방이 무너진후로 1990년대부터 끝이 보이지않은 다이빙을 해왔을 뿐만아니라, 외부로부터 원조가 끝나고 대신에 중국이 가장 큰 교역상대국이 된것이다.
이와는 반대로 한국은 아시아에서 4번째로 큰 경제규모를 자랑하는 잘사는 나라로 성장하여 국가총생산량(GDP)은 프랑스와 이태리의 경제와 거의 같은 규모를 자랑한다. 한국의 Soft power는, 특히 음악, 음식, 화장품 같은 문화적 수출은 전세계적으로 유명하게 붐을 일으키고 있다.
한국에서 사용되는 슬랭어같은 외부영향을 허락하는것은 북한으로서는 체제유지에 매우 위험할수있기 때문에 철저히 막는 것이다. 왜냐면 외부영향을 허락하는것은 그들 사회의 체제를 바꾸는 지름길이 될수있다는것을 알게되지만, 북한유행은 그렇게 되지 못하기 때문이다 라고 Lankov씨는설명한다.
남한사람들이 관습적으로 하는 유행의 물결과, 패션 헤어스타일 그리고 젊은이들이 즐겨쓰는 슬랭어를 북한주민들이 사용하게 되는것은 두가지를 암시하는 것이다. 즉 북한에서 금하고 있는 물품사용에 접근하고, 남한에 대한 동경과 남한에서 널리 애용하는것들을 수용한다는 표시인것이다 라고 Lankov씨는 설명한다.
김정은이를 포함한 북한 지도자들이 성난 주민들로 부터 성난 주민들로 부터 대규모 소요가 일어나는것을 두려워할것이라는것은 큰 문제가 안된다. 북한 김정은 Regime은 군중 데모에 참가하여 구호를 외치는등등의 주민들에게는 무자비하게 형벌로 다스리기 때문이다 라고 Lankov씨는 설명한다.
그러나 외부 세계로 부터 군중들이 데모를 한다는것을 주민들이 알게 된다는것과, 그결과 북한체제유지에 얼마나 치명적인가에 대해서는 그들의 완전한 이데올로기의 기본을 약화 시킬수 있다는 점을 두려워 하는 것이다. 1980년대에 서방세계의 물질 문명이 쏘연방 주민들에게 충격을 주었으며 그로인해 결국 쏘연방은 멸망하고 말았었다는 전례를 북한regime은 알고 있다는 뜻이다.
남북한간에 긴장감이 감돈것은 2016-17년에 북한이 불법으로 미사일 시험발사를 했기때문이었다. 그러나 그해에 문재인이가 대통령으로 당선되면서 많이 해빙되면서, 문재인과 김정은이는 2018년 말까지(end of 2018)공식적으로 전쟁을 끝내고 한반도 비핵화를 완성하기위해 공동으로 노력하자는 맹세를 했었다.
같은달 김정은부부는 평양에서 남한의 가수들이 노래열창하는 쑈(a rare concert)를 관람했는데, 남한측 연예인들이 북한을 방문하여 공연하는 콘서트 관람은 십수년만에 처음이었었다.
김정은의 약속이행은 지켜지지 않았으며, 트럼프 대통령과 정상회담에서 철석같이 약속한 비핵화는 말짱 물거품이 되고 말았다. 문재인은 지금이라도 정신 차리고, 김정은이가 핵무기와 탄도미사일 비축에 목을 메는 이유를 꿰뚤어 보고, 자유민주주의 체제를 대한민국이 유지할수 있도록 해야한다.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks in Pyongyang on June 29.
(CNN)North Korea is doubling down on its culture war, warning citizens to stay away from all things South Korean -- including its fashion, music, hairstyles and even slang.
In the past decade, South Korea has emerged as a formidable cultural force, with products from makeup to K-pop and K-drama finding enthusiastic fans around the world.
But one place trying to stop South Korean influence from permeating its borders is its neighbor to the north.
For decades, North Korea has been almost completely closed off from the rest of the world, with tight control over what information gets in or out. Foreign materials including movies and books are banned, with only a few state-sanctioned exceptions; those caught with foreign contraband often face severe punishment, defectors say.
Restrictions have softened somewhat in recent decades, however, as North Korea's relationship with China expanded. Tentative steps to open up have allowed some South Korean elements, including parts of its pop culture, to seep into the hermit nation -- especially in recent years, when relations thawed between the two countries.
But the situation in North Korea is now fast deteriorating -- and strict rules have snapped back into place, in a crackdown reminiscent of its earlier, more isolated history.
Earlier this month, South Korean lawmaker Ha Tae-keung said after attending a briefing by the country's spy agency that North Korea's regime was implementing strict rules on how young people dress and speak. For instance, South Korean women often use the term "oppa" for their romantic partners -- it's now forbidden in the North. Instead, North Korean women must refer to their lovers as "male comrades," said Ha.
Propaganda videos in the country also denounce behaviors that show "foreign influence," such as public displays of affection. Those who violate the rules are the "sworn enemy of the revolution," Ha said, citing South Korea's National Intelligence Service.
Last Sunday, the regime blasted foreign ways of life in an article in state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun, urging young people to be "faithful to the calling of their country."
"Struggle in the field of ideology and culture is a war without gunfire," said the article, citing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Without specifically naming South Korea, it added that losing the culture war would "bring many times more serious consequences than on the battlefield."
Clothing, hairstyles and language were "a reflection of the state of thought and spirit," it added. "Even if young people sing and dance, they should sing and dance to the melodies and rhythms that fit the needs of the times and the national sentiment of our people, and flourish our style of culture."
These restrictions may seem outlandish -- but things like slang, innocuous on the surface, represent a much more complicated struggle over power and control, experts say. And North Korea's tolerance for foreign influence is in constant flux, shifting alongside its economic wellbeing and international diplomacy.
Why hair and music matter in North Korea
North Korea's relationship with South Korea has remained fraught since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. No peace treaty was ever signed, meaning the war never formally ended.
North Korea had once been among the most industrially developed parts of East Asia, said Andrei Lankov, director of the Korea Risk Group and professor at Kookmin University in Seoul. But after decades of isolation, its people now live in grinding poverty.
The North Korean economy spiraled downward in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which ended the flow of aid into the country, leaving China as the country's biggest trading partner.
By contrast, South Korea is Asia's fourth-largest economy, with a GDP per capita on par with European nations like France and Italy. Its soft power has boomed as cultural exports like music, food and beauty products gained popularity around the world.
That's why North Korea is so wary of allowing any foreign influence such as South Korean slang, said Lankov -- because it means "acknowledging that the alternative model of society worked, and the North Korea model did not."
North Koreans who adopt South Korean mannerisms -- fashion, hairstyles, vocabulary -- thus indicate two things, Lankov added: access to banned materials, and "an indication of admiration and sympathy" toward South Korea."
The potency of this soft power relies upon the vast inequity between the countries. People are dying of hunger in North Korea, where supply shortages mean the prices of some staple food items are skyrocketing. Kim has acknowledged the "tense food situation," though he blamed it on a series of typhoons and floods.
It's not necessarily that North Korean leaders fear a mass uprising from a disgruntled public, said Lankov -- the regime is "brutal" enough to punish "everybody who will dare to open his or her mouth."
But rising knowledge about the outside world, and about just how much worse things are in North Korea, could erode the regime's legitimacy and its entire ideological framework -- similar to how the clamor for Western goods in 1980s Soviet Russia contributed to public disillusionment and its eventual fall.
"It absolutely does pose a threat if young North Koreans are watching South Korean dramas and seeing what life is like for Koreans outside their country, because they're seeing images of Seoul, of how well they're living, how freely they're living," said Jean Lee, senior fellow at the US-based Wilson Center and the former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press.
And young people are the biggest target of the crackdown because they're "the most vulnerable to new influences," Lankov said. "Older people don't want change ... But all the new ideas are spreading among the younger generation."
Politics and pop culture
Talks between the North and South have started and stalled numerous times over the years -- and North Korea's attitude toward foreign pop culture appears to have relaxed and hardened accordingly.
After Kim assumed power in 2011, he initially favored a more liberal approach, said Lankov -- even allowing some Western music, and forming an all-girl North Korean band.
Lee, who was based in the capital Pyongyang during those early years, said foreign influences became apparent as the rules relaxed. North Koreans would casually drop South Korean slang as a "sly way to hint that they were watching South Korean dramas," she said. Tourist attractions began to adopt English signage. Elite North Koreans were allowed to travel more, primarily to China.
But Kim soon adopted a more conservative approach, and began cracking down on USBs and other technology that could be used to smuggle in information, said Lankov.
Tensions escalated in 2016 and 2017 with a series of North Korean missile launches. But relations began thawing after South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office -- by the end of 2018, Moon and Kim had vowed to formally end the Korean War and work toward complete denuclearization.
That same month, Kim and his wife attended a rare concert of South Korean singers and performers in Pyongyang -- the first time in more than a decade that South Korean musicians had traveled to North Korea.
The same switch happens in the South too, Lee said, where North Korean products and culture become "trendy" during times of diplomacy, and taboo when tensions rise. "It's the political climate that affects pop culture," she added.
But talks faltered in 2019 after a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump fell apart, and communication ultimately broke down. By early 2020, the country completely shut its borders due to Covid-19, cutting off nearly all trade with China, its main economic lifeline.
The state of North Korea's economy often dictates its restrictions. And with the country in increasingly dire straits, the regime isn't taking any risks.
In December, North Korea passed a new law to prevent the spread of content not approved by government censors; this February, Kim suggested greater controls on societal content could be coming; the following month, a North Korean propaganda website accused K-pop record labels of "slave-like exploitation."
It's impossible to say for sure what triggered Kim's latest crackdown on foreign influence in the past two to three years, said Lee -- but she added it could be linked to the border closures and extreme economic hardship.
"Goods and people are not going across the border, so they can't get the things that they want or crave, she said. "So what we know from this edict that was passed down is that they're telling their people, stop craving that stuff. And (they're) phrasing it in a way that's about North Korean identity -- let's get back to our tradition, our language, who we are, and not be so covetous of foreign things."
But, she added, things can change quickly depending on the state of inter-Korea diplomacy.
"The party is constantly changing the rules about what's acceptable when it comes to foreign content, and the people have to pay attention," she said. And the message now is: "There may have been a period where it was okay to covet these things, to crave these foreign goods. But it's no longer okay."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/23/asia/north-korea-culture-war-kpop-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
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