Growing up in North Korea, Hyuk’s childhood was about survival. He by no means listened to banned Ok-pop music however, after defecting to the South, he is about to debut as an idol.
Hyuk is one in every of two younger North Koreans in a brand new Ok-pop band referred to as 1Verse — the primary time that performers initially from the nuclear-armed North have been educated up for stardom in South Korea’s world Ok-pop trade.
Before he was 10, Hyuk — who like many Ok-pop idols now goes by one title — was skipping faculty to work on the streets in his native North Hamgyong province and admits he “had to steal quite a bit just to survive”.
“I had never really listened to K-pop music”, he informed AFP, explaining that “watching music videos felt like a luxury to me”.
“My life was all about survival”, he stated, including that he did every little thing from farm work to hauling shipments of cement to earn cash to purchase meals for his household.
But when he was 13, his mom, who had escaped North Korea and made it to the South, urged him to affix her.
He realized this may very well be his probability to flee hunger and hardship, however stated he knew nothing in regards to the different half of the Korean peninsula.
“To me, the world was just North Korea — nothing beyond that,” he informed AFP.
His bandmate, Seok, additionally grew up within the North — however in distinction to Hyuk’s hardscrabble upbringing, he was raised in a comparatively prosperous household, residing near the border.
As a end result, though Ok-pop and different South Korean content material like Ok-dramas are banned within the North with harsh penalties for violators, Seok stated “it was possible to buy and sell songs illegally through smugglers”.
Thanks to his older sister, Seok was listening to Ok-pop and even watching uncommon movies of South Korean artists from a younger age, he informed AFP.
“I remember wanting to imitate those cool expressions and styles — things like hairstyles and outfits,” Seok informed AFP.
Eventually, when he was 19, Seok defected to the South. Six years later, he’s a spitting picture of a Ok-Pop idol.
Hyuk and Seok had been recruited for 1Verse, a brand new boy band and the primary signed to smaller Seoul-based label Singing Beetle by the corporate’s CEO Michelle Cho.
Cho was launched to each of the younger defectors by way of pals.
Hyuk was working at a manufacturing facility when she met him, however when she heard raps he had written she informed AFP that she “knew straight away that his was a natural talent”.
Initially, he “professed a complete lack of confidence in his ability to rap”, Cho stated, however she supplied him free classes after which invited him to the studio, which acquired him hooked.
Eventually, “he decided to give music a chance”, she stated, and have become the company’s first trainee.
In distinction, Seok “had that self-belief and confidence from the very beginning”, she stated, and lobbied arduous to be taken on.
When Seok realized that he could be coaching alongside one other North Korean defector, he stated it “gave me the courage to believe that maybe I could do it”.
The different members of 1Verse embrace a Chinese-American, a Lao-Thai American and a Japanese dancer. The 5 males of their 20s barely communicate one another’s languages.
But Hyuk, who has been finding out English, says it does not matter.
“We’re also learning about each other’s cultures, trying to bridge the gaps and get closer little by little,” he stated.
“Surprisingly, we communicate really well. Our languages aren’t perfectly fluent, but we still understand each other. Sometimes, that feels almost unbelievable.”
Aito, the Japanese trainee who’s the principle dancer within the group, stated he was “fascinated” to fulfill his North Korean bandmates.
“In Japan, when I watched the news, I often saw a lot of international issues about defectors, so the overall image isn’t very positive,” he stated.
But Aito informed AFP his worries “all disappeared” when he met Hyuk and Seok. And now, the 5 performers are on the point of their debut.
It’s been an extended street from North Korea to the cusp of Ok-pop stardom within the South for Hyuk and Seok — however they are saying they’re decided to make 1Verse a hit.
“I really want to move someone with my voice. That feeling grows stronger every day,” stated Seok.
Hyuk stated being a part of an actual band was a shifting expertise for him.
“It really hit me, like wow, we’re almost there.”
© 2025 AFP