“Over a long night, just like morning dew on leaves, which is prettier than a pearl, when sorrow in my mind is dewy each by each, I climb a morning hill and learn a subtle smile. The crimson sun rises beyond a grave; the sizzling heat in the day light is my ordeal. Now, I will go towards that wild field, after throwing away all my sorrow” (Morning Dew, by Kim Min Kee)
Morning Dew, composed by Kim Min Kee in 1971 in South Korea, portrays the young spirit of resistance. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, this song became the most representative anti-governmental folk song among South Korean youths. This is why the song is officially banned in South Korea in 1975.
It was also banned in North Korea in 1998. Most South Koreans were unaware that Morning Dew, which had been introduced in North Korea in the mid-90s, had come to be widely sung throughout the country.
The song initially gained popularity and began to spread like wild-fire in North Korea in 1996. At that time, the March of Tribulation, which lasted from 1994 to 1998, was reaching a climax. It was during this arduous period that three million North Korean residents starved to death under the Kim Jong Il regime.
[imText1]At the start of the massive food crisis, the North Korean authorities started circulating propagandistic “educational” materials which impressed on citizens that the famine was not caused by the regime, but by the anti-North Korean maneuvers of international and domestic enemies and, most importantly, the American imperialists.
In government buildings, schools, factories, let alone collective farms, they built “Education Centers” to fuel the propaganda through community videos.
One of the video clips, replicating a demonstration by South Korean students during the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Movement, featured “Morning Dew,” sung by North Korean singer Lee Ki Bok. On the video, the scene was described as “South Korean people fighting aggressively against America out of love for Comrade Kim Jong Il.”
However, the song, which was meant to strengthen the spirit of the anti-American campaign, had an opposite effect upon the people of North Korea.
People sang “Morning Dew” overtly and routinely when they gathered or drank. The more they sang, the more they began to feel the spirit of resistance inspired by the lyrics. The song soon spread throughout the whole of the country.
The authorities eventually came to realize the effect the music was having on the masses and ordered the people via People’s Unit Meetings and lectures not to sing it anymore. They withdrew all the video tapes, arrested those caught singing the song, charged them with political offenses and sent them to toil in the labor-training corps.
As another irony, in 2000 North Korea began to encourage guides and service personnel stationed at tourist sites such as Mt. Geumgang, the Kaesong Industrial Complex and foreign restaurants to sing “Morning Dew” with the intention of rallying national sentiment against America, saying “Let’s fight with our own nation’s power against American Imperialists.”
Even now, according to several sources, North Korean residents continue to sing “Morning Dew,” despite reinstatement of the ban. In a phone interview with Daily NK, one source revealed, “There are still those that are caught by the People’s Safety Agency for humming ‘Morning Dew’ when they are three sheets to the wind.”
