Putting the fragrance in the flower | NK News
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September 20, 2026Sep 20, 2026

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Putting the fragrance in the flower

How the cult of personality permeates North Korean pop

It is said in North Korea that music without politics is a flower without its fragrance, and the politics that North Korean music never fails to emit is revolutionary socialism. Yet, despite the revolutionary themes embodied in North Korean popular songs, the function of this music is actually quite conservative: to garner support for the policies of the Kim regime and to maintain allegiance to them. One way the regime does this is by associating the three leaders (Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jung Un) to powerful yet relatively universal and concrete daily human experiences.

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