Seoul urges North Korea to end ‘K-pop ban’, give its citizens freedom of information

In its first ever official message on the issue, Seoul ‘strongly’ urges Pyongyang to abolish the ban on K-pop and other cultural content from South Korea

According to North Korean defectors, an offender could be jailed for life for watching a South Korean film under the ‘anti-reactionary thought law’

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South Korean K-pop group BLACKPINK performs at an MTV awards event in New Jersey last year. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 26 Aug 2023

Since its founding in 1948, the dictatorial regime in North Korea has strictly blocked the entry of any information from the outside that could threaten its stability and legitimacy.

Those who spread messages deemed to deviate from its totalitarian principles have always been at risk of punishment under its publication law and administrative guidelines.

This is why North Korea’s decision in 2020 to adopt an “anti-reactionary thought law”, a move specifically targeting South Korea’s cultural content, drew little attention here at the time.

Nearly three years after the law came into force in North Korea to crack down on K-pop and other types of South Korean cultural content, Seoul released its first official message calling on Pyongyang to revoke what is also known as the “K-pop ban”.

“We strongly urge North Korean authorities to abolish the anti-reactionary thought law that denies its citizens access to outside information,” Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said at a seminar on the human rights of North Koreans in Seoul on Thursday.

The demand comes days after his meeting with reporters, during which Kim said the ministry under him would be more vocal in rights issues involving the North by, for example, criticising “policies such as the K-pop ban” more directly and proactively.