| "We Will Go to Mount Paektu" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Moranbong Band | |
| Language | Korean |
| Released | 20 April 2015 |
| Genre | Light music |
| Length | 4:03 |
| Composer(s) | U Jong-hi |
| Lyricist(s) | Ri Ji-song |
| "We Will Go to Mount Paektu" | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 가리라백두산으로 |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Garira Baekdusaneuro |
| McCune–Reischauer | Karira Paektu sanŭro |
| [1] | |
"We Will Go to Mount Paektu" is a 2015 North Korean light music song in praise of the country's leader,Kim Jong Un. [2] [3]
The song is important politically,and its lyrics recount a highly symbolic trek onto Mount Paektu,important in North Korean propaganda,by Kim Jong Un.
The song is associated with the Moranbong Band but has been performed by other North Korean artists as well. Slovenian avant-garde group Laibach recorded an English-language cover version of the song and wanted to perform it in North Korea. Authorities of the country asked them to leave it out of their concert and the group complied.
Songs had played an important part in the cult of personality of Kim Jong-un,whose succession of Kim Jong Il was accompanied by the song "Footsteps". Likewise,the purge of Jang Song-thaek,a major political event in Kim Jong Un's early career,was accompanied by "We Will Follow You Only". The release of "We Will Go to Mount Paektu" in turn coincided with soon-to-be-purged Minister of People's Armed Forces Hyon Yong-chol's visit abroad in Moscow. [2]
The lyrics of "We Will Go to Mount Paektu",by Ri Ji-song,were released in Rodong Sinmun on 20 April 2015. The lyrics recount Kim Jong Un's trek to Mount Paektu,important in North Korean propaganda and described as the "sacred mountain of the Sun that gives [the people] the spirit of victory" by the lyrics of the song. [2] The text below is the chorus (or refrain) of the song.
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The song took the center stage in Moranbong Band's concert on 28 April 2015. [2] The song became one of the biggest hits of 2015 in North Korea. [4] Other North Korean groups that have performed the song are the State Merited Chorus [5] and the Kim Il-sung Youth League Art Propaganda Squad. [6]
Slovenian avant-garde music group Laibach released an English-language cover version of the song. [7] The band intended to play their version for a live audience in North Korea as part of their Liberation Day tour there, [4] [7] but North Korean officials censored them for having altered the song. [8] Ivo Saliger of the group told Rolling Stone :
We wanted to present three important and well-known Korean songs: "Honorable Live and Death," "Arirang" and "We'll Go to Mt. Paektu." In the end, their censors asked us to take out "Honorable" and "Mt. Paektu," because we had changed them too much from the originals, and they are extremely sensitive about their own culture. [9]
The row was apparently over the tempo of the song. [8] Norwegian director Morten Traavik, who arranged the tour, said:
Both 'Honorable' and 'Mount Paektu' are songs that have a special significance politically and ideologically in North Korea [...] When Laibach did their versions... the songs were no longer recognizable to [the censors]... They were worried that the audience would react negatively and think that Laibach was making fun of and disrespecting the Korean culture. [10]
The music of North Korea includes a wide array of folk, popular, light instrumental, political, and classical performers. Beyond patriotic and political music, popular music groups like Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble and Moranbong Band perform songs about everyday life in the DPRK and modern light pop reinterpretations of classic Korean folk music. Music education is widely taught in schools, with President Kim Il Sung first implementing a program of study of musical instruments in 1949 at an orphanage in Mangyongdae. Musical diplomacy also continues to be relevant to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with musical and cultural delegations completing concerts in China and France in recent years, and musicians from Western countries and South Korea collaborating on projects in the DPRK.
Rodong Sinmun is a North Korean newspaper that serves as the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It was first published on 1 November 1945, as Chŏngro, serving as a communication channel for the North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea. It was renamed in September 1946 to its current name upon the steady development of the Workers' Party of Korea. Quoted frequently by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and international media, it is regarded as a source of official North Korean viewpoints on many issues.
The Down-with-Imperialism Union was allegedly founded on 17 October 1926 in Hwatian County, Kirin, China, in order to fight against Japanese imperialism and to promote Marxism–Leninism. It is considered by the Workers' Party of Korea to be its root and foundation and its creation is celebrated every year.
The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information at its source. A typical example of this was the death of Kim Jong Il, news of which was not divulged until two days after it occurred. Kim Jong Un, who replaced his father as the leader, has largely followed in the footsteps of both his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father. However, new technologies are being made more freely available in the country. State-run media outlets are setting up websites, while mobile phone ownership in the country has escalated rapidly. "There is no country which monopolizes and controls successfully the internet and information as North Korea does," said Kang Shin-sam, an expert on North Korean technology and co-head of the International Solidarity for Freedom of Information in North Korea, a nonprofit based in South Korea. North Korea has about four million mobile-phone subscribers circa 2022—roughly one-sixth of the population and four times the number in 2012, according to an estimate by Kim Yon-ho, a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
The Wangjaesan Light Music Band is a light music (kyŏngŭmak) group in North Korea. It is one of two popular music groups that were established by North Korea in the 1980s, both named after places where Kim Il Sung fought the Japanese in 1930s. It takes its name from Mount Wangjae in Onsong-gun, North Hamgyong Province, on the border with China, where Kim Il Sung is said to have held a meeting for anti-Japanese activities in 1933.
Kim Kyong-hui is the aunt of current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. She is the daughter of the founding North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and the sister of the late leader Kim Jong Il. She currently serves as Secretary for Organization of the Workers' Party of Korea. An important member of Kim Jong Il's inner circle of trusted friends and advisors, she was director of the WPK Light Industry Department from 1988 to 2012. She was married to Jang Song-thaek, who was executed in December 2013 in Pyongyang, after being charged with treason and corruption.
"Onwards Toward the Final Victory" is a North Korean propaganda hymn dedicated to the country's leader Kim Jong Un. It continues the tradition of North Korean supreme leaders having hymns dedicated to them, as was the case with Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung and Kim's father Kim Jong Il.
Hyon Song-wol is a North Korean singer, band leader, and politician. She is the leader of the Moranbong Band and of the Samjiyon Orchestra. She was formerly a featured vocalist for the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble in the early 2000s, a pop group which found fame in North Korea in the late 1980s and 1990s. She has been a member in the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea since 2017.
Hyon Yong-chol was a North Korean general and Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) politician. He served as Minister of Defence from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, he was reportedly removed from his post.
The Moranbong Band, also known as the Moran Hill Orchestra, is a North Korean girl group. The original members were selected by the country's supreme leader, Kim Jong Un. Performing interpretive styles of pop, rock, and fusion, they are the first all-female band from the DPRK, and made their world debut on 6 July 2012. Their varied musical style has been described as symphonic because it is "putting together different kinds of sounds, and ending in a harmonious, pleasing result."
"We Will Follow You Only" is a North Korean propaganda hymn dedicated to the country's leader Kim Jong Un. The song was first released on the Korean Central Television, right after Jang Song-thaek was arrested on December 9, 2013. People in factories and schools were required to sing the song, sometimes on camera.
Cho Ki-chon was a Russian-born North Korean poet. He is regarded as a national poet and "founding father of North Korean poetry" whose distinct Soviet-influenced style of lyrical epic poetry in the socialist realist genre became an important feature of North Korean literature. He was nicknamed "Korea's Mayakovsky" after the writer whose works had had an influence on him and which implied his breaking from the literature of the old society and his commitment to communist values. Since a remark made by Kim Jong Il on his 2001 visit to Russia, North Korean media has referred to Cho as the "Pushkin of Korea".
Chongbong Band is a North Korean light music choir and orchestra. The group consists of seven members: singers and instrumentalists playing mainly brass instruments. According to KCNA, the band members are instrumentalists of the Wangjaesan Art Troupe and singers of the Moranbong Band's chorus.
Labor Hero is one of the highest titles of honor of North Korea and the highest decoration of the country overall. The award was probably scheduled for establishment in the summer of 1950, but the Korean War postponed these plans. When the war had entered a phase of stalemate along the 38th parallel, the government had time to officially launch the decoration, originally under the name Korea Hero of Labor. 16 people were decorated Labor Heroes during the war and more since then. The decoration is based on its Soviet equivalent, Hero of Socialist Labour.
The Samjiyon Band is a North Korean classical music ensemble.
Chongnyon Jonwi is a daily newspaper in North Korea. It is the official organ of the Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League. It is one of the three most important newspapers in the country, the other two being Rodong Sinmun and Joson Inmingun. Chongnyon Jonwi is particularly known for jointly publishing New Year editorials with the two papers under the rule of Kim Jong-il. Most of its regular articles are commentary on the contents of Rodong Sinmun from a youth perspective. The editor-in-chief is Choe Sun-chol.
Parliamentary elections were held in North Korea on 10 March 2019 to elect the members of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly. The elections were announced on 6 January 2019. With only one candidate on the ballot in each constituency, outside observers described it as a show election. 687 candidates for the DPRK deputies to the SPA were elected. Kim Jong Un did not stand for election, marking the first time that a North Korean leader did not participate as a candidate.
Party Songs is an EP by Neue Slowenische Kunst industrial/avant-garde group Laibach. It contains three versions of the song "Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road", as well as two versions of North Korean pop song "We Will Go To Mount Paektu" and a live recording of all-Korean folk song "Arirang". The songs are a collaboration with Boris Benko from Slovenian electronic band Silence.
The Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House is the principal publishing house of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and one of the two main publishers in the country. It publishes magazines and books on politics, such as the works of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, posters and works of fiction. The current director-general and editor-in-chief is Ri Yong-chol.
"The General Uses Warp" is a North Korean song praising Kim Jong Il. The song was first released in 1996 by Wangjaesan Light Music Band, with lyrics written by Chong Ryol and music composed by Kim Un-ryong.
