Keyword: kpop
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North Korean authorities announced last year that anyone in possession of South Korean media or art would face up to 15 tears in prison North Korean authorities allegedly executed two minors for the crime of watching and distributing South Korean movies, according to a Friday report. Sources who witnessed the alleged execution in October told Radio Free Asia the teens were aged 16 and 17. A resident told the broadcaster's Korean service they were told that "those who watch or distribute South Korean movies and dramas, and those who disrupt social order by murdering other people, will not be forgiven...
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WASHINGTON — Macho men are in and effeminate male performers are out as Beijing expands its crackdown on China’s entertainment industry, blaming the rise of unmanly men on U.S. influence in Japan. Male celebrities, even top moneymakers, are changing their images seemingly overnight now that China’s National Radio and TV Administration and other government agencies have made it clear that men who can be described as “niang pao,” a derogatory term for effeminate men, are no longer suitable role models. New government controls call for broadcasters to enforce a “correct beauty standard” and to stop booking male celebrities who fail...
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Back in December, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intensified the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) culture war against South Korean media by introducing heftier labor camp sentences for individuals caught indulging in such entertainment. While the maximum punishment was set at five years of hard labor, it is now five to 15 years.As K-pop fandom continues to grow in South Korea and other parts of the world, the North Korean government and the DPRK leader are reiterating the country's stance on South Korean music and media.The 37-year-old leader of the DPRK recently referred to K-pop as a "vicious...
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(Article from 2017) China is not happy about Washington’s agreement with Seoul to build a missile shield system, known as THAAD, in South Korea to protect the close US ally from North Korean attacks. Other than issuing angry statements, though, China actually can’t do much to stop the installation of the THAAD system, which began Tuesday. It’s taking out its anger on Korean pop culture instead. Korean TV shows and K-pop music videos have been blocked from streaming in China — one of their biggest and most lucrative markets — Chinese internet users have posted about boycotting Korean beauty products,...
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A South Korean court on Friday found two K-pop stars guilty of illicit sexual relations with a woman who was unable to resist and sentenced them to up to six years in prison. The Seoul Central District Court said singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young received a six-year prison term and former boy band member Choi Jong-hoon a five-year term. Jung was additionally convicted of filming sex videos of women against their will and sharing them with friends in a group chat. They have one week to appeal, according to the court. Their scandals roiled South Korea’s entertainment industry earlier this year when...
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Kara, her former band, were one of the first K-Pop groups to break through on the international stage. Goo's first solo EP, released in 2015, peaked at number four in the Korean music charts. She had signed with a talent management agency in Japan earlier this year and released a song named Midnight Queen earlier this month. Over the last year her career was overshadowed by events in her life off the stage. In September 2018 Goo filed a lawsuit against an ex-boyfriend after he threatened to damage her career by exposing an illicit video of her. Her former partner...
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South Korean group Blackpink have set a record for the fastest music video to reach 100 million views on YouTube. YG Entertainment, the group's management company, said the group's latest video 'Kill This Love' surpassed 100 million hits around 2pm on Sunday, just two days and 14 hours after being released. The music video, published at midnight on Friday, received more than 10 million views in just four hours and 13 minute
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A man wearing make-up on the street may elicit unwelcome glares, questions about his masculinity and even his sexuality. But in South Korea, ideas about how to look good as a man are changing attitudes and influencing the world, as the BBC's Saira Asher reports. When the BBC posted a video about the make-up routine of a 16-year-old YouTuber in Seoul on Facebook, the reactions ranged from intrigued to downright vitriolic. Some assumed this meant he was gay, while others admonished him for his choice saying "real men don't wear make-up". There were, of course, those that argued for his...
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Korean is rapidly growing in popularity, in a language-learning boom driven by the popularity of the country's pop stars. A desire to learn the lyrics of K-Pop hits like Gangnam Style has boosted the Korean language's popularity explode in countries like the US, Canada, Thailand and Malaysia. A report by the Modern Language Association shows that Korean uptake in US universities rose by almost 14% between 2013 and 2016, while overall language enrolment was in decline. The latest statistics show 14,000 students are learning Korean in the US, compared to only 163 two decades earlier. The language learning website Duolingo...
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SEOUL - South Korean boyband phenomenon BTS have become the first K-Pop group to rise to the top of the US album charts, a vivid illustration of the genre's growing global appeal. Known for their boyish good looks, floppy haircuts and meticulously choreographed dance moves, the septet has become one of South Korea's best known and most lucrative musical exports. On Monday they passed a new milestone - becoming the first K-Pop group to top the Billboard 200 music charts which ranks albums via sales, downloads and streams. "It's the first No. 1 for the seven-member group, and the first...
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Perak mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria claimed today that Muslims are forbidden from joining the candlelight vigil in memory of the Korean pop star who died of suspected suicide this week. The mufti asked about the necessity for Muslims to pray for a deceased non-Muslim to go to heaven especially when he allegedly committed suicide, after Astro Awani contacted him for his opinion. “Cannot. You’re forbidden from doing that. If the artist or individual was Muslim, we gift him the al-Fatihah verse. If it’s a non-Muslim, why would we pray heaven for him instead? “What more he committed suicide, why...
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North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Korea's defence ministry has claimed - just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test. Officials in Seoul say South Korea's military has been placed on full combat readiness to respond to 'further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation' by the North. It comes as it emerged that the South is planning to 'annoy' its neighbour by blasting loud K-pop girl band music over the border. The army wants to set up a huge block of speakers and a giant...
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Song Joong Ki: Descendants of the Sun actor lands on 'Hell Notes' in China April 8, 2016 10:14 SGT By Gungeet Kaur Immensely popular South Korean actor Song Joong Ki, who plays army captain Yoo Shi Jin in the record-breaking series Descendants of the Sun, has reached another level. According to reports swirling around the net, the pictures of the 30-year-old actor clad in army uniform are being imprinted on the hell notes for the departed souls in China. Reportedly, on seeing the adoration of the star among people, many merchants got Joong Ki's picture printed on joss paper and...
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A top North Korean official has warned the secretive state is being pushed to the "brink of war" - as South Korea continued to blare propaganda through loudspeakers across the border. In what was the country's first response to the broadcasts, which Pyongyang finds insulting, Kim Ki Nam also told a rally that the US and its followers were "jealous of the successful test of our first hydrogen bomb" - which it claims took place on Wednesday. South Korea's ear-splitting barrage, which includes "K-pop" music and messages criticising Kim Jong-un's regime, is being blasted from walls of loudspeakers in 11...
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N. Korea's all-female music band disappears from broadcasts 2015/09/07 11:31 SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) -- A popular all-female music band in North Korea has disappeared from the North's broadcasts since mid-July, spawning speculation over a possible breakup of the group created three years ago. The Moranbong Band, dubbed a North Korean girl group, was established in July 2012 by the North's young leader, Kim Jong-un, featuring Western-style music and outfits. Without clear reasons, the band's members have not appeared on programs aired by the North's Korean Central Television since July 15, with only their music being broadcast, according to an...
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Are there any fans of the TV series Jumong from Korea? Is it worth investing the time?
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LONG BEFORE PSY made Korean music famous in the West, much of Asia had fallen under the sway of K-pop: tightly choreographed ditties performed by fresh-faced boy and girl bands, exquisitely manufactured from interchangeable parts. Even in North Korea the latest dance routines are eagerly imitated, according to Daily NK, a news hub led by defectors. Dance teachers can earn about 20 times the average worker’s salary, it reports.
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British weekly magazine the Economist published an article highlighting K-pop girl band Crayon Pop in its latest issue, which hit newsstands on Saturday. As part of a 14-page special report on Korea, it wrote, "Crayon Pop are not a typical K-pop outfit. They look goofy rather than glamorous, like kid sisters not dream dates, and prefer plimsolls to stilettos." The success story of Crayon Pop's song "Bar Bar Bar" was viewed as being different from that of other Korean girl groups. It "spread like a virus on YouTube," the magazine wrote. "Whereas most songs peak early in the charts, then...
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A Palestinian girl has won the top prize at an essay contest held by Korea University. In an essay describing her reflections on how she became a fan of Korean pop music and dramas, Samir Maisa (19), a student at Al Quds University in Palestine, wrote, "I heard a saying that there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. I decided to choose the latter." She said that Korean dramas appeared in her life one day like a "miracle" to give her...
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"They may look wacky and bizarre, but this rookie Korean girl group, Crayon Pop, is leading the KPop music charts. And it's this music video, "Bar Bar Bar" that is running red-hot on the internet." (Excerpt quote from video.)
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