S. Korean cultural influence is causing 'cracks' in rigid NK society: unification minister

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho on Tuesday underscored the importance of "cultural" approaches to fostering internal change in North Korea, saying the inflow of South Korean pop culture is causing "cracks" in a rigid ideology-based society of the reclusive country.

Kim also pointed out North Korean authorities' "sense of crisis" over their people's growing rejection of the North's culture anchored in the ideology of "juche" or self-reliance, as he attended a Washington-based forum held to shed light on North Korea's human rights record.

"With the influx of external culture and information, such as South Korean soap operas and K-pop, many North Koreans are consuming juche culture by day and South Korean culture by night," he said at the event hosted by his ministry, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the National Endowment for Democracy and Human Asia.

"(This) signifies a fierce competition between the regime's juche culture and the people's South Korean hallyu culture over the consciousness and minds of North Koreans," he added. Hallyu refers to the global popularity of Korean pop culture.

Citing a series of Pyongyang's legal steps against "reactionary ideology and culture," Kim said the steps reflect a sense of crisis felt by North Korean authorities.

He said that the fact that more than half of the 196 North Korean defectors last year were young people and high-ranking officials "attested to the influence of South Korean culture, which is causing cracks in the rigid wall of juche culture."

"Considering these internal changes within North Korean society, the importance of cultural approaches is increasing alongside political and military approaches to strongly deter North Korea's military threats," he said.

Kim characterized the North Korea regime as a "totalitarian dictatorship aiming for the total control of the mind and the body of the citizens."

"(North Korea) .... inevitably places high importance on information control," he said.

The minister also warned North Korea and Russia against what he termed the "exploitation" and "neglect" of North Korean workers abroad.

"The exploitative labor conditions and intensity of North Korean workers' (tasks), along with the exploitation by North Korean authorities and the neglect by host countries by Russia, will be thoroughly documented and preserved as cases of human rights violations through the Ministry of Unification's Center for North Korean Human Rights Record," Kim said.

His remarks came amid reports that North Korean workers are working in Russia, China and other countries in breach of a UN Security Council resolution that called for the repatriation of the workers thought to be a key source of hard currency used to help bankroll Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

Also attending the forum was South Korean Ambassador to the United States Cho Hyun-dong.

Cho accused Pyongyang of controlling "every aspect of civil life, including thought, culture and language" as he cast North Korean society as "grotesque."

"North Korean human rights abuses are just a small part of a grotesque society of fear, a society that exists solely to keep the ruling powers in place," he said.

"But we know the truth: fear alone cannot sustain a regime unless they start to feed the starving people, attend to their basic need and improve their welfare, the system will crack." (Yonhap)