Themusic of North Korea includes a wide array of folk, popular, light instrumental, political, and classical performers. Beyond patriotic and political music, popular music groups likePochonbo Electronic Ensemble andMoranbong Band perform songs about everyday life in North Korea and modern light pop reinterpretations of classic Korean folk music. Music education is widely taught in schools, with PresidentKim Il Sung first implementing a program of study of musical instruments in 1949 at an orphanage inMangyongdae.[1] Musical diplomacy also continues to be relevant to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with musical and cultural delegations completing concerts inChina[2] andFrance[3] in recent years, and musicians from Western countries and South Korea collaborate on projects in North Korea.[4][5]
After thedivision of Korea in 1945 and the establishment of North Korea in 1948, revolutionary song-writing traditions were channeled into support for the state, eventually becoming a style of patriotic song calledtaejung kayo (대중가요) in the 1980s[6] combining classical Western symphonic music, the Soviet socialist realism style, and Korean traditional musical forms.[7] The songs are generally sung by female and male performers - either a choir, small groups or a soloist - with accompanying bands or choirs accompanied by a large orchestra (either Western style, traditional or a hybrid of western and traditional) or aconcert band, and in recent years, a pop band orbig band/jazz band with guitars, electric guitars, keyboards, piano, strings, double bass, a drum kit and brass section with occasional accordions and traditional instrumentation.
North Korean music follows the principles ofJuche (self-reliance) ideology.[8] The characteristic march like, upbeat music of North Korea is carefully composed, rarely individually performed, and its lyrics and imagery have a clear optimistic content.
Much music is composed for movies, television dramas, and TV movies, and the works of the Korean composerIsang Yun (1917–1995), who spent much of his life in Germany, are popular in North Korea.
| DPRK-pop | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Native name | 조선-팝 |
| Etymology | Democratic People's Republic of Korea's popular music |
| Other names | North Korean popular music (NK-pop) |
| Stylistic origins | |
Under Kim Il Sung's era, only ideologically correct music was allowed.Jazz in particular was considered out of bounds.[9] Many artists however found their way around these limitations by writing ideologically correct lyrics while taking liberties with the score. Under Kim Jong Il, previously forbidden genres, even jazz, became permissible and encouraged.[10]
Many North Korean pop songs are usually performed by young female singers with an electric ensemble, percussionist, and accompanying singers and dancers. However, there are also male singers or a chorus in community or company pop bands. Some North Korean pop songs such as "Whistle"—set to the lyrics of North Korean poetCho Ki-chon[11]—have become popular in South Korea.[12] Common lyrical themes include military might ("We Shall Hold Bayonets More Firmly", "Look At Us!", "One Against a Hundred"), economic production and thrift ("The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation", "Attain the Cutting Edge (TheCNC Song)", "I Also Raise Chickens", "Potato Pride", "Chollima on the Wing"), patriotism ("My Country Is the Best", "We Have Nothing To Envy", "Onwards Toward the Final Victory") and glorification of the party and leaders ("Where Are You, Dear General?", "No Motherland Without You", "Don't Ask My Name", "The General Uses Warp", "Footsteps"). Songs like "We Are One" and "Reunification Rainbow" sing of the hopes forKorean reunification. There are also songs with more casual themes, such as "Women Are Flowers" and "Ballad of Gold Mountains".[13][14][15]
In 2012, North Korea's first major girl band, theMoranbong Band, made its world debut.[16] It is a group of about sixteen North Korean women (eleven instrumentalists and five singers) which was hand-selected byKim Jong Un.[17]
BBC radio disc jockeyAndy Kershaw noted, on a visit to North Korea withKoryo Tours in 2003, that the only recordings available were by the pop singersJon Hye-yong,Kim Kwang-suk,Jo Kum-hwa andRi Pun-hui, and the groupsWangjaesan Light Music Band, theMansudae Art Troupe and thePochonbo Electronic Ensemble, who play in a style Kershaw refers to as "light instrumental with popular vocal".[13] There is also theState Symphony Orchestra, theSea of Blood Opera Company, two choruses, an orchestra and an ensemble dedicated toIsang Yun's compositions, all in Pyongyang. ThePyongyang Film Studios also produces many instrumental songs for its films, and several programs onKorean Central Television have music made and performed by the Central Radio and Television Orchestra.[18]
In 2010, abrutal death metal group purporting to be from North Korea, called Red War (붉은전쟁), released a three-track demo online. However, as of 2014 the group are believed to be disbanded.[19] Subsequent investigations revealed that Red War never actually existed. The project was later exposed as ahoax, since the tracks attributed to Red War were in fact taken from a demo released in 1995 by the death metal bandAmniorrehexis.[20]
In 2023, a new remix of the song Envy Us was released for the New Years Concert, with singers led by Jong Hong-ran in modern clothing and hairstyles. The song was noticed as being similar to K-Pop with a more modern feeling, causing widespread attention in and out of North Korea.[21]
For the 2025 Mass Games in honour of the 80th anniversary of the Worker's Party of Korea, singer Jong Hong-ran returned singing a rendition of We Will Follow Our Party Forever,[22] with a similar modern outfit with other singers also in more K-pop style clothing. Older North Korean songs were remixed, typically known for their solemn and lyrical style, now set to faster beats and more a more upbeat nature, reflecting the change in North Korean music style in the 2020s to become more modern.[23]
Nonetheless, in 2025, araw black metal act named 구룡 (Guryong) emerged, also claiming to originate from North Korea.[24]
The metal music archive Spirit of Metal currently lists two bands that claim to originate from North Korea, Red War and thepornogrind band Teagirl.[25]
North Koreanpop music is available for visitors toPyongyang at theKoryo Hotel orNumber One Department Store, as well as gift shops in tourist destinations.[14] International and Western music can be enjoyed by locals and tourists at theGrand People's Study House, Pyongyang's central library.[26][27]
A lot of songs composed duringKorea under Japanese rule, which are known in South Korea today asTrot are called "Enlightenment Period song" (계몽기 가요).[28][29] It is no longer composed aspropaganda music has since displaced other musical forms.[30][31] Those songs were only orally-recorded for a long time. However, it was intentionally revived during theKim Jong Il administration: in the late 2000s,Korean Central Television aired a TV program that introduced those "Enlightenment songs".[32]
Alongside contemporary pop songs, groups like Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble have recorded arrangements of Korean folk songs.[33] The Korean folk song "Arirang" continues to be widely popular in North Korea, withUNESCO inscribing the song to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014, representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.[34]
LikeKorean music in general, North Korean music includes kinds of both folk and classical, courtly music, including genres likesanjo,pansori, andnongak. Pansori is long vocal and percussive music played by one singer and one drummer. The lyrics tell one of five different stories, but is individualized by each performer, often with updated jokes and audience participation. Nongak is a rural form of percussion music, typically played by twenty to thirty performers. Sanjo is entirely instrumental that shifts rhythms and melodic modes during the song. Instruments include thechanggo drum set against a melodic instrument, such as thegayageum orajaeng.[13]
In North Korea, traditional instruments have been adapted in order to allow them to compete with Western instruments. Many older musical forms remain and are used in both traditional performances that have been attuned to the ideas and the way of life of the modern North Korean communist state and to accompany modern songs in praise of Kim Il Sung, his son and successor, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un from 2012 onward, plus songs that wish for a reunited Korea, thus creating a mix of traditional and Western music that is truly North Korean, a unique variant of Korean music as a whole mixing the old and the new.
The modern Ongnyugeum zithers and theSohaegeum four stringed fiddle are North Korean modernized versions of traditional Korean musical instruments, both used in traditional and modern musical forms.
Military music, in contrast, often makes extensive use of Western brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments, often omitting the Korean ones entirely. Although usually original compositions, the melodies are not easily distinguishable from Western ones in the absence of their lyrics, which heavily feature the customary ideologically oriented content.
"Potato Pride" is a North Korean propaganda tune in which the elder of the village receives his government ration of potatoes and shares it with his fellow villagers.
