South Korean girl group Girlfriend. (Imgae : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) - South Korea has included songs by girl groups in anti-North Korea broadcasts initiated earlier on Friday along the inter-Korean border, sources in the South Korean defense ministry said.
The playlist includes Girlfriend’s “Me Gustas Tu,” a dance track, and A-Pink’s “Let Us Just Love,” the theme song for the 2011 SBS soap opera “Protect the Boss,” the sources said.
Songs from “CHAT-SHIRE,” the latest album by singer-songwriter IU, will also be played along the border in an apparent effort to demonstrate the improved status of South Korean women.
A song by Lee Ae-ran, the title of which roughly translates into “100 years of life” in English, will also enlighten North Korean listeners about the increased life expectancy in South Korea.
“The lyrics of songs played in these broadcasts portray South Korea as a prosperous country,” music critic Choi Kyu-seong said. “They have simple, repetitive melodies that are very catchy.”
Seoul restarted propaganda broadcasts at noon Friday, two days after Pyongyang claimed to have succeeded in testing a hydrogen bomb. Friday is also the purported birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who is known to be in his early 30s.
North Korea had previously shown extreme sensitivity to such broadcasts, which it referred to as “an act of war” in August 2015 when South Korea resumed them for the first time in 10 years.
South Korea halted the broadcasts on Aug. 25, 2015 after North Korea made conciliatory gestures, including holding reunions of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.’
(Yonhap)
