Seoul - While the world's attention is fixed on North
Korea's nuclear programme, growing numbers of young North Koreans are
becoming addicted to South Korean television dramas and associated
fashions, a news report said Thursday.
The Herald Economy newspaper said that despite periodic crackdowns
against South Korean cultural influence by North Korea's
authoritarian leaders, many of the communist country's youth not only
watch South Korean shows but also mimic the way the stars talk and
wear their hair.
The phenomenon was reported in a survey in October 2006 of 30
North Korean defectors who were receiving resettlement education at
Hanawon, a South Korean government-run institute that helps North
Koreans adjust to a new life in South Korea.
'If you have nothing to say about South Korean (TV and movie)
dramas when you hang around with your friends, you will probably find
yourself as an outsider among North Korean young peers,' one young
North Korean defector was quoted as saying.
The surveyed defectors said the trend was not limited to the
country's elites but also had spread to middle-class people living in
big cities like Pyongyang or the western port cities of Nampo or
Gaesung.
Some relatively affluent North Koreans can get CDs or video tapes
from those returning from trips to South Korea and China, with the
South Korean fashions spreading quickly by word of mouth among young
people, according to the survey.
Defectors say that some young North Koreans even change their
hairstyle to look like South Korean actors.
Bewildered North Korean authorities have launched crackdowns to
stop the spread of South Korean culture among North Korean youth.
'North Korea is aware that the stronger the desire for change
their countrymen may feel, the greater the risk of breaking the unity
among North Korean people,' said one official at the Hanawon
Institute.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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