Hidden-camera footage of several alleged North Korean government officials and businessmen grinding on karaoke hostesses has gone viral after the grainy video was released by a South Korean pastor in March.
The video shows several unnamed men - who the pastor claims are high-ranking government workers and businessmen - speaking with North Korean accents and drinking beer whilst singing and dancing with the karaoke bar hostesses. One of the men appears to kiss one of the women during a dance.
Karaoke bars are a rapidly growing popular choice for after-hours fun in the North as South Korean culture flows up to the DPRK, pastor Kim Sung-Eun explains. Some of the bars are funded from China as a meeting place for often illicit cross-border business deals.
"Workers and officials involved in foreign trade have been making fortunes in recent years, and they are the main clients," he said.
Compared to similar bars in South, the scene in the video is decidedly tame. All parties are dressed in conservative, long-sleeve clothing, and the dancing is only mildly suggestive.
However, the video remains significant due to the rarity of non-government approved footage of North Korean life.
Foreign journalists wishing to work in the country are restricted by government minders over where and what they can film, meaning that actual documentation of North Korean daily life - especially outside Pyongyang - is still widely unknown to the rest of the world.
Pastor Kim has released similar undercover footage filmed in North Korea before, saying only that he obtains it from “sources” who smuggle it out of the country. He revealed that the recent video was filmed over the course of six months in the Chongjin region and the economic zone of Rajin.
Black market and cross-border trading has created a small, fledgling middle class in North Korea who are enjoying wealth previously only imaginable to high-ranking party officials.
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