K-pop songs blasted into North Korea

South Korea tried to get under the skin of its arch-rival with border broadcasts featuring not only criticism of North Korea’s nuclear programme, its troubled economy and human rights abuses, but also a unique homegrown weapon: K-pop.

Performers on the propaganda playlist Seoul began blasting across the border include a female K-pop band that rose to fame when its members fell multiple times on stage, and a middle-aged singer who last year rose from obscurity with a song about living for 100 years. The border broadcasts are in retaliation for the North’s nuclear test last Wednesday.

A song by Lee Ae-ran whose title can be translated as ‘100 years of life’ sends messages to death, or a god from the underworld, saying it isn’t yet time to say goodbye to living.

It was so popular among young and old that Kakao Talk, South Korea’s most popular messenger app, created emoticons, or animated images, from the music video. The song inspired a host of online parodies and memes.

Also echoing over the demilitarised zone: GFriend’s ‘Me gustas Tu’, about a girl who is trying to muster courage and overcome shyness to ask a boy out.