Kim Jong Un was meant to be their only idol - then North Koreans discovered K-pop

What the report says

BBC World News, in a report by BBC Korean from Seoul published 17 July 2026, profiles North Korean defectors who say South Korean pop music has reached parts of North Korea despite severe controls on outside culture. The story follows Lee Yeon-su, a pseudonym for a woman who left North Korea in 2011 and now attends BTS concerts in South Korea, describing the freedom to choose whom to support as something she could not imagine under the North Korean system.

The BBC reports that some defectors first encountered K-pop only after leaving, while others heard songs secretly inside North Korea through TV signals, MP3 players or small SD cards. Kang Gyu-ri, who fled in 2023, said she heard BTS’s “Dynamite” in Kyongsong and watched South Korean music shows when antenna reception allowed. Another defector, Hannah Oh, said she listened in secret without always knowing artists’ names, and that students caught with South Korean content faced public denunciations and punishment.

The report places K-pop’s spread in the context of North Korea’s effort to maintain loyalty to Kim Jong Un and tightly restrict competing cultural influences. Defectors cited by the BBC said groups such as BTS, Blackpink, Girls’ Generation, Teen Top and 2PM became known through informal circulation, with some names entering slang.

According to the BBC, South Korean entertainment is risky to consume in North Korea and can lead to imprisonment or worse. The article says Kim Jong Un’s government has intensified crackdowns as Korean culture has gained global reach, while a cited 2023 survey found most defectors had watched South Korean dramas or films before leaving, often increasing curiosity about the South.