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.