As the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world in November 2020, two cars with Yanggang Province Ministry of Social Security and Yanggang Party Committee license plates came to a stop in front of the Taedonghan County Ministry of Social Security.
Just a little while earlier, three couples in their early to mid-60s had been arrested for watching a South Korean drama while in quarantine for being suspected of having caught the coronavirus. These sorts of incidents were hardly uncommon at the time, so what had happened that would merit members of the provincial police and provincial party committee making a trip down to a county branch of the Ministry of Social Security?
In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Korean government focused its efforts on quickly closing off its national borders and preventing the spread of disease. As part of this process, the authorities often blindly forced anyone suspected of contracting the disease to self-quarantine and thoroughly enforced orders to stay inside for the full quarantine period.
For North Koreans who earned a living day to day, this quarantine period was often incredibly difficult to endure. However, for privileged North Koreans whose food supplies continued to be guaranteed by the state – members of the Central Party Office No. 6, noted socialist patriots, and families of discharged military officers – quarantine offered a golden opportunity to avoid inspections and watch South Korean dramas without much fear of being caught.
Of the three couples who had been arrested, one was affiliated with Central Committee Office No. 6, one was related to a noted socialist patriot, and one had a family member who was a discharged military officer. The couples had all been brought in within one to two days of each other after quarantine officials repeatedly heard suspicious sounds audible from outside the thin walls of the families’ homes.
Upon investigating the incident, the police found that these members of the “core class” had violated the rules of self-quarantine to pass round and talk all about South Korean dramas and how much they had related to what they had seen.
The investigators deemed the incident serious enough to report to their superiors, and both the Yanggang Province police department and party committee sent representatives down to deal with this unusual incident involving members of the supposedly ideologically unimpeachable core class.
South Korean drama mesmerizes members of “core class”
The representatives from the provincial security office and party committee interrogated the couples on an individual basis, but the couples all told investigators that “it was [their] first time watching a movie or drama from South Korea, and they had strongly recommended the drama to each other for its fascinating portrayal of how people in a different society [South Korea] face their aging lives.”
Which drama had been so fascinating that these couples simply had to recommend it to each other? The drama was none other than South Korean drama “Dear My Friends,” a show depicting the candid lives of a group of friends in their golden years.
The three husbands, who had previously been friends, had broken self-quarantine regulations to secretly meet up and exchange storage devices containing the drama. It was revealed that the husband connected to Central Committee Office No. 6 had been the first to acquire the drama through a Chinese trader.
The three wives admitted they had watched the drama together with their husbands during quarantine, and even went so far as to confess that ”the drama had really resonated with them, and if they hadn’t been arrested, they had planned to watch it again.” The wives also revealed that they had spoken about the drama amongst themselves and how “thankful they were to live blessed lives just like the characters in the drama.”
The county and provincial branches of the Ministry of Social Security, along with the Yanggang Province’s party committee cadres, who heard these confessions were shocked and perplexed by the confessions. The investigators decided they needed to know more in detail about the drama in order to hand down proper punishments. After obtaining permission from the provincial party committee, two cadres then proceeded to take the confiscated storage devices and watched the entire drama start to finish.
A few months later, the three couples were given six months of reform through labor – a relatively light sentence due to their membership in the core class.
Ultimately, the incident illustrates that despite their “superior ideological background,” even members of North Korea’s “core class” are helpless to the charm of sentimental South Korean dramas. Perhaps the reason that the North Korean regime cracks down so fiercely against the “Korean Wave” is because North Koreans can be just as attracted to cultures outside their own as everyone else in the world is.
Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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