Harry Potter, Bollywood, hot pants and K-pop: in North Korea, Kim Jong-un’s cultural revolution gathers speed
- North Korea has long dismissed Western pop culture as bourgeois and corrupt, but lately it has adopted a more relaxed attitude
- Kim-approved changes include grittier TV shows, pop music and even a factory making fancy footwear
Dancers in hot pants. Factories pumping out Air Jordan lookalikes. TV dramas that are actually fun to watch.
North Korean pop culture, long dismissed by critics as a kitschy throwback to the dark days of Stalinism, is getting a major upgrade under leader Kim Jong-un.
The changes are being seen in everything from television dramas and animations to the variety and packaging of consumer goods, which have improved significantly under Kim.
Whether it’s a defensive attempt to keep up with South Korea or an indication that Kim is willing to embrace aspects of Western consumer culture that his predecessors might have viewed as suspiciously bourgeois isn’t clear.
“The most important thing for us is to produce a product that suits the people’s tastes,” Kim Kyong-hui of the Ryuwon Shoe Factory said recently in the facility’s showroom, which is filled with dozens of kinds of shoes for running, volleyball, soccer – even table tennis. “The respected leader Kim Jong-un has instructed us to closely study shoes from all over the world and learn from their example,” she added, pointing to a pair of flame-red high-top basketball shoes.
North Korea remains one of the most insular countries in the world. Change comes cautiously and anyone who openly criticises the government or leadership or is seen as a threat can expect severe repercussions.