N. Korea's art performance marking party anniv. apparently features K-pop elements

▲ This image, captured from footage of North Korea's state-run TV network, shows a North Korean singer with a bowl haircut singing a song at an art performance on Oct. 12, 2025, to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ This image, captured from footage of North Korea's state-run TV network, shows an art performance held on Oct. 12, 2025, to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

N Korea-party events

N. Korea's art performance marking party anniv. apparently features K-pop elements

SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's recent art performance to mark its key party anniversary featured elements apparently influenced by K-pop and other outside culture, footage from the North's state-run TV station has showed.

Footage aired by the state-run Korean Central Television showed a North Korean female singer with a "bowl haircut" performing a group dance in sync with background dancers during an art performance held Sunday marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Instead of "hanbok," traditional Korean attire, the singer wore a white trouser suit, with her backup dancers also wearing short skirts and high heels.

In the art performance, some lyrical North Korean songs were arranged into fast-beat tunes, according to the footage.

North Korea has implemented three so-called evil laws to prevent North Koreans from accessing outside information and culture. The regime has carried out public executions of North Koreans who watched or distributed South Korean movies and music.

But the North's recent art performance having South Korean cultural elements appears to indicate that the country also seems to tolerate some outside culture in a bid to utilize it for fostering people's ideology.

Meanwhile, North Korea's mass games held for party anniversary celebrations featured circus-like acrobatics, the footage showed.

North Korea's mass games have been criticized by the West as cases of human rights violations. It is believed that participants for mass games are not allowed to go to the restroom for more than six hours and eat food for synchronized movements.

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