The First Defector Group from North Korea, K-pop’s Dream Performance in Their Homeland

North Korean Defectors’ K-pop Dream: Performing in Their Homeland Despite Bans

13th February, 2025

K-pop idols from South Korea are storming all over the world, collecting millions of fans while greatly influencing global culture. While many use their fame to promote albums, endorsements, and even merchandise, Yu Hyuk and Kim Seok, members of the breakout group 1Verse (pronounced “universe”), harbor the dream of performing in North Korea despite the country’s strict bans on foreign music.

Hyuk (25) and Seok (24), both North Koreans who defected at a tender age and now form an international K-pop group also comprising a member each from Japan and the United States, happen to be Kenny and Nathan, respectively. In an industry already saturated with groups competing for attention, 1Verse stands as the first K-pop boy band made up only of defectors from North Korea.

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The Journey from North Korea to the K-pop Stage

Hyuk began his career growing up in Kyongsong County, raised since he was four by his father and grandmother, who fled to South Korea. Years later, when his father would not support him and his grandmother had become too frail to work, Hyuk began a perilous multi-country trek for several months in search of a safe haven with his mother in South Korea.

When he was down South, it was not easy for Hyuk; he was confused by the competitive education system because he had hardly passed primary school. Writing seemed to excite him, so he translated his experience in North Korea into short poems. Music became his refuge, helping him to grapple with extreme loneliness and the memories of his father. His rap song Ordinary Person bears witness to those emotions; it carried with it the sensation of loneliness by way of the words: “the loneliest of the loners.” Marked by the struggles, he graduated from high school at the age of 20, and went on to work part-time in restaurants and factories to support himself.

Seok, on the other hand, had highly different fortunes. He had grown up near the Chinese border and had made use of USBs and SD cards to access smuggled K-pop and K-dramas. His way to the South was not as rough as was Hyuk’s, but this was not to say that he did not experience his fair share of adjustment problems along the way.

They were spotted by Michelle Cho, herself a former producer at SM Entertainment, the management company that has given rise to great names like EXO and Super Junior. She saw their star potential and recruited them into her Singing Beetle agency, training them to be K-pop idols. “They were blank slates,” recalls Cho, thereby explaining their lack of pop cultural exposure. The fact that they were green did not hamper their will-they took grueling training, many times so strenuous they came close to collapsing.

The Dream That Knows No Boundaries

The ultimate dream of Hyuk is to perform in North Korea, where K-pop is strictly outlawed. While activists frequently send USBs loaded with South Korean music and entertainment items over the border via balloons and bottles, the idea of a defector-turned-idol returning as a performer seems nearly impossible.

According to Ha Seung-hee, a North Korean media and music specialist at Dongguk University, if Hyuk were to make a name for himself, this could send waves across North Korea. “Should a North Korean defector publicly embrace their identity and, God forbid, become a global superstar, that could have serious repercussions in the North,” he noted.

But for Hyuk, it is no just music-the dream is that of an inspiration. “For defectors, becoming a K-pop idol seems impossible. If I become successful, others may dare to dream without fear,” he says. In a world where defectors often meet with exclusion and hostility, his journey stands as a beacon of hope showing that even the most impossible dreams may come true.

The story of 1Verse and its members is one of music and resilience. Though K-pop remains banned in North Korea, Hyuk’s dream represents those who fight for their cause with the spirit of all those defying whatever they may face to create their own fortune.

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