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howpoplooks on Instagram: "In April 2018, K-pop girl group Red Velvet made history by performing in North Korea, becoming the first K-pop girl group to hold a concert there since 2005. They performed at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre as part of a peace-themed cultural exchange aimed at improving relations between North and South Korea. The audience was made up largely of North Korean officials and members of the country’s elite. Throughout the performance, many sat quietly with little to no visible expression, creating an atmosphere that appeared formal, reserved, and cautious. However, as the concert came to an end, the mood began to shift. The audience responded with enthusiastic applause, showing their appreciation for Red Velvet’s performance. The event became a rare symbol of cultural exchange between the two Koreas amid decades of political tension and division."
www.instagram.com869K likes, 9,828 comments - howpoplooks on June 13, 2026: "In April 2018, K-pop girl group Red Velvet made history by performing in North Korea, becoming the first K-pop girl group to hold a concert there since 2005. They performed at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre as part of a peace-themed cultural exchange aimed at improving relations between North and South Korea.
The audience was made up largely of North Korean officials and members of the country’s elite. Throughout the performance, many sat quietly with little to no visible expression, creating an atmosphere that appeared formal, reserved, and cautious.
However, as the concert came to an end, the mood began to shift. The audience responded with enthusiastic applause, showing their appreciation for Red Velvet’s performance. The event became a rare symbol of cultural exchange between the two Koreas amid decades of political tension and division.".
Reminds me of when Occupied Korea sent a bunch of K-Pop and K-dramas up north as a propaganda effort (which prompted the trash balloons), I remember thinking about how shitty / creepy K-pop can be to non fans (to me at least) and how so many k-dramas have a plot or at least a character whose whole point is how fucking shitty it is to live in Occupied Korea, how little class mobility there is, how fucking cutthroat and classist people can be against the poor, etc.
I used to live with roommates who were really big fans of K Pop and would explain what was going on to me sometimes. They were very frank when I asked followup questions as to how abusive and exploitative the music industry there is, how it’s basically run by middle aged businessmen who are trying to manufacture groups of perfect boys and girls. How these singers and dancers are not well compensated for their work in spite of their enormous successes, and their lives are thoroughly controlled by enormous corporations. How in interviews their favorite performers publicly profess that they hope their children will not end up in this industry.
It seemed strange to participate in the spectacle given their awareness of how miserable it made people that they presumably cared about.
The treatlerite does not concern themselves with thoughts of how the sausage is made. Even when they already know. Especially then, in fact.