The Hack That Allowed G-Dragon To Enter North Korea

Kim Jong Un is having a hard time regulating the spread of G-Dragon‘s music thanks to a smart new technology that’s helping North Koreans smuggle in South Korean entertainment.

According to a North Korean defector, South Korean media content is very popular in North Korea and is sold at premium prices. Despite the danger of being caught and its consequence, they’ve continuously smuggled in South Korean products through China for years.

As the smuggling increases, the North Korean teens have gotten a taste of K-Pop, creating a higher demand for smuggled K-Pop music. Out of all of the idols. G-Dragon’s music is said to be the most popular among teenagers.

“Teenagers these days love idol music like G-Dragon, and it’s spreading like a phenomenon.”

— North Korean Defector

How is G-Dragon’s music passing through the heavy surveillance of the North Korean regime? Smugglers have found a brand new technology called “Stealth USB” that helps media content like G-Dragon’s songs pass through security checks.

“Stealth USB” may look like an average USB, but it actually has a unique function that hides its contents well. When it is connected to a USB port for the first time, the USB comes up as empty. However, if you connect the USB repeatedly for a couple of times, the USB eventually opens up to reveal its contents.

Through this new technology, North Koreans have been able to sneak in contents despite North Korea’s heavily monitored objection towards capitalism since the 90’s.

In the past, North Korean officials tried to detect South Korean contents in tapes and CDs by shutting off the electricity of an entire town. That way, people weren’t able to take them out to hide them.

However, the regime is now facing a hard time catching these smugglers since laptops and USB sticks are controlled with other means than direct electricity, like batteries.

To contest these new smuggling techniques, Kim Jong Un has declared that he will be reinforcing his ban on capitalism and non-regulated media contents through stricter security levels.

“We will create an exterminatory war against capitalism.

It is very dangerous to stop our young youth and our peoples’ revolutionary consciousness and class consciousness. It threatens to dismantle the position of our socialist revolution.

There will be a rigid detoxification of the non-socialist phenomena.”

— Kim Jong Un