No stopping South Korea's cultural invasion of the North

More than seven decades after an armistice that “ended” the Korean War in July 1953, South Korea appears to be on the offensive – but of the benign kind – against the North.

- MICHAEL PUNONGBAYAN

As South Koreans continue to hope for unification with their unpredictable neighbor and always watchful of their intentions, K-pop, K-dramas and movies are rapidly penetrating homes in the north, providing entertainment and information and unsettling Pyongyang. A report on North Korea’s economy and society as perceived by 6,351 defectors released by the Ministry of Unification, shows a slow but steady increase in the number of North Koreans getting access to the outside world.

The study, shared with The STAR and other media organizations invited by Seoul, indicates how music, television, movies and other non-traditional sources of information are starting to affect the hearts and minds of people in North Korea.

Jeong Eun Chan, a professor at the Ministry of Unification, noted that 36.4 percent of households in North Korea now have mobile phones as compared to only 2.8 percent before 2011.

From 2012 to present, compact disc and digital video disc player ownership in the North also rose from 26.6 percent to 73.6 percent.

Ownership of computers, MP3 players, and Landline telephone lines for the past 14 years has also increased from 1.8 percent to 19.6 percent, 5.6 percent to 30.8 percent, and 7.7 percent to 39.9 percent, respectively.