Wearing tight jeans and a wooden cross around his neck, a Kremlin-backed pop star with Russian and North Korean flags in each hand put on a show for a Pyongyang audience on Liberation Day, backed by thumping rock beats and guitar solos.

The performance by the singer Shaman was far from ordinary in the officially atheist state where even blue jeans are banned and most music is either disturbingly serious or bright and poppy.

But Shaman is not the first singer from outside the DPRK to perform in the country — South Korean girl group Red Velvetcaused a