“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews with and columns by North Korean defectors, most of who left the DPRK within the last few years.

Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Today’s question is about what it was like to listen to South Korean music for the first time.

Sersong Han — who was born and raised in North Korea and lived there until he defected in 2014 — writes about encountering covers of foreign songs by DPRK bands, the initial strangeness of