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A North Korean defector wants to be his country

"These memories of life during North Korea"

While growing up in North Korea, Kang Chun-hyok remembers listening to bands like the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, which put out propaganda mass band songs.  Now at age 28 and living below the border, Kang writes his own music, but it’s nothing like what he heard back home.
 
He says his first 12 years of life in North Korea were terrible. He says that while the ruling Kim family drank expensive, imported booze, he was eating tree bark and drinking out of mud puddles.
 
Kang says it’s these memories of life during North Korea’s deadly famine in the 1990s that inspire his lyrics the most.

 “I was starving when I was a kid, I had to steal food.  Yeah, I’m angry about that. Why did I have to live like that?”
 
Before his family escaped North Korea in 1998, Kang grew up as a street child.  He only had the chance to learn about playing music and the arts once he arrived in the South 3 years later.
 
Refugee advocates say for people like Kang who grew up outside of the capital Pyongyang, those opportunities just don’t exist.
 
That’s according to Roland Chi who is with the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, a refugee support group in Seoul.

“They’ve been brainwashed, any sort of artistic compunction they have has been stamped out, unless it’s directed at glorifying the state of North Korea.”
 
Chi says when Kang first came here, they noticed he had a knack for drawling. He’s now about to graduate from one of Korea’s top arts schools. Rapping is a new talent he’s working on.
 
Kang still has a ways to go.  So far he’s written four songs but he’s already made his South Korean television debut.
 
Kang was recently a contestant on Show Me The Money, a reality program that gives aspiring rappers a chance to stand in the limelight.
 
He says going on the show was a great experience. But he realized that compared to most other South Korean rappers, the music he’s writing is very different.  

“I know people here have lived under tough times too, but it’s hard to compare to how North Koreans live. South Koreans write love songs and about breaking up. But I’m writing lyrics about human rights. ”
 
For many South Korean viewers, Kang’s appearance on the show might have been the first time they’ve ever heard a defector speak, let alone rap, about human rights or life back in the North.
 
And it left an impression on some of the program’s judges too.
 
The Quiett is a South Korean rapper and producer. He says he was surprised about Kang’s lyrics when he first heard him perform.
 
“Yeah it was serious. I never heard that kind of rapper before.”
 
The Quiett explains that many South Koreans just don’t care about North Korea or the 26-thousand defectors who now live here. But he thinks if Kang keeps working at it and puts out songs, he might be able to change minds.
 
“There are many things we don’t know, and he can tell it.  Its important.  He should do it.”
 
But he says Kang Chun-Hyok needs to get over stage fright first. He was eliminated from Show Me the Money after he choked and forgot his lyrics. 
 
But now Kang’s getting some help from Korean-American composer and producer Woody Pak.
 
“I was struck by the way his words are reflecting what he’s probably too shy to say in a normal conversation.  As we continue to work, I hope he finds a lot of freedom and inspiration and that he’s inspired by the fact that he can express himself freely and get a message out.”
 
Pak and Kang have so far made it into the studio to work on one song.
 
It starts off like this… even though we grew up differently, we are still brothers.  Even though the 38th parallel blocks us, we are still one. And now look around, we are standing here together in the big Seoul city.
 
“Everyone likes music. I hope through my songs that I can not only tell people more about myself, but also tell the real story about North Korea.”
 
Kang hopes to have his first album out by December.

• North Korea
• rapper
• Show me the money
• defector
• Jason Strother
• eng