North Korea Cut Red Velvet’s Performance Out Of Broadcast
During North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency broadcast, Red Velvet was shown shaking hands with Kim Jong Un and taking the group photo, but their actual performance of “Red Flavor” and “Bad Boy” was completely cut out.
This comes as a surprise as Red Velvet has previously described how well they were received by the North Korean audience.
“(The North Korean audience) gave us really enthusiastic reactions. At the end of the song, they sang along with us and even continued to clap after we left the stage. It made me feel a little strange.” ㅡ Irene
Although Red Velvet’s performance was the only one to be completely cut out, parts of the performances by other singers were also edited out. Scenes that showed the artists encouraging the audience to clap or performing freely were all excluded. They also did not mention the names of the artists and songs in the broadcast.
On the other hand, the songs the North and South Korean singers sang in unison were more emphasized.
Although no announcements were made as to why Red Velvet’s performance was not aired, netizens speculate that it was due to a difference in culture.
K-Pop has become an essential part of South Korean culture, but North Korean culture is still much more traditional and censored against K-Pop.
Meanwhile, the broadcast of the concert in South Korea on April 5th reached a record nationwide audience view rating of 36.6% according to Nielsen Korea.
KBS 1 received 15.6%, MBC 10.6% and SBS 10.4%.
Watch Red Velvet’s live performance in Pyongyang below:
