26.10.29. How a North Korean went from begging to K-pop

How a North Korean went from begging to K-pop한 북한 주민이 거지 생활에서 K-팝 스타가 되기까지 10 February 2025 Yuna KuBBC Korean, Seoul Jungmin Choi / BBC Korean Hyuk during a dance training session Jungmin Choi / BBC Korean사진1Hyuk is set to debut as a K-pop boyband member this year혁은 올해 K-팝 보이밴드 멤버로 데뷔할 예정이다 <1>Yu Hyuk was just nine years old when he started begging on the streets of North Hamgyong, one of the poorest provinces in North Korea, nestled along the northern border with China and Russia.유혁은 중국과 러시아와 접경한 북한 최빈곤 지역 중 하나인 함경북도 거리에서 구걸을 시작했을 때 겨우 9살이었다. Besides begging, he ran errands for soldiers and sold foraged mushrooms. 구걸 외에도 그는 군인들을 위해 심부름을 하고 채집한 버섯을 팔았다.  Sometimes he stole food out of sheer hunger: once he snatched a lunchbox that sat unattended at an underground station. Inside was a scoop of spoiled rice.때로는 극심한 배고픔에 못 이겨 음식을 훔치기도 했는데, 한 번은 지하철역에 주인 없이 놓여 있던 도시락을 훔친 적이 있다. 안에는 한 숟가락정도의 상한 밥 이 들어 있었다. This was just "part of everyday life" for many North Koreans, he says, adding that his own life was so consumed with survival that it left little room for dreams.그는 이것이 많은 북한 주민들에게 있어 그저 “일상의 일부”였다고 말하며, 자신의 삶은 생존에 온전히 매몰되어 꿈을 꿀 여유가 거의 없었다고 덧붙였다. But dream he did. Later on this year, the 25-year-old will debut in the US as a member of a K-pop boy band.하지만 그는 꿈을 가졌다. 올해 말, 이 25세 청년은 K-팝 보이밴드의 멤버로 미국에서 데뷔할 예정이다. 1Verse (pronounced "universe") is made up of five members: Hyuk, Seok who is also from North Korea, Aito from Japan, and Asian Americans Kenny and Nathan - all prefer to go by their first names. 1Verse(‘유니버스’라고 발음함)는혁, 북한 출신인 석, 일본의 아이토, 그리고 아시아계 미국인인 케니와네이선 등 5명의 멤버로 구성되어 있으며, 이들은 모두 이름만 부르는 것을 선호한다.  They are set to make history as the first K-pop boy band to debut with North Korean defectors.이들은 북한 탈북자와 함께 데뷔하는 최초의 K-팝 보이밴드로서 역사를 쓰게 될 전망이다. From scraps to rap        쓰레기에서 랩으로 Hyuk was born in a seaside village in Kyongsong county and raised by his father and grandmother, after his parents broke up when he was just four.혁은 경성군 해안 마을에서 태어났으며, 네 살 때 부모님이 이혼한 후 아버지와 할머니의 손에서 자랐다. Later, his mother fled the North to settle in the South and reached out to him in an attempt to get him to join her. 나중에 그의 어머니는 북한을 탈출해 남한에 정착했고, 아들이 자신과 함께 살도록 설득하기 위해 연락을 취했다.  But he refused as he was close to his father and did not want to leave him.하지만 그는 아버지와 사이가 좋았고 아버지를 떠나고 싶지 않아 이를 거절했다. Hyuk says his family was "not extremely poor" to begin with, but the situation quickly deteriorated after his parents separated. 혁은 원래 가족이 “극도로 가난한” 처지는 아니었지만, 부모님이 이혼한 후 상황이 급격히 악화되었다고 말한다.  His father didn't want to work and his grandmother was too old, so Hyuk was left to his own devices to survive.아버지는 일하기를 싫어했고 할머니는 나이가 너무 많아서, 혁은 스스로 살아남아야만 했다. <2>Eventually, his father persuaded him to join his mother, and in 2013 Hyuk escaped from North Korea.결국 아버지의 설득으로 어머니가 있는 곳으로 가기로 결심한 혁은 2013년 북한을 탈출했다. It took months for him to arrive in the South, after going through several countries. 그가 여러 나라를 거쳐 남한에 도착하기까지 수개월이 걸렸다.  He has chosen not to reveal specifics of the route, as he fears putting other future defectors at risk.그는 향후 탈북을 계획하는 다른 이들의 안전을 위협할까 봐 구체적인 경로는 밝히지 않기로 했다. North Hamgyong Province, Jung Pyong Ri, where Hyuk lived when he was in North Korea혁이 북한에 살던 시절 거주했던 함경북도 중평리사진2Hyuk lived in North Hamgyong Province    혁은 함경북도에서 살았다. Once in the South, he lived with his mother for just a year, before moving to a boarding school with his mum's financial support. 남한에 온 후, 그는 어머니와 단 1년 동안만 함께 지낸 뒤 어머니의 경제적 지원을 받아 기숙학교로 옮겼다.  However, he struggled to cope with South Korea’s fiercely competitive education system, as Hyuk had barely finished primary school before his defection.하지만 탈북 당시 초등학교를 간신히 마친 상태였던 혁은 남한의 치열한 교육 경쟁에 적응하는 데 어려움을 겪었다. Writing was the one thing he found solace in, he says.그는 글쓰기가 유일한 위안이 되었다고 말한다. He started with short poems alluding to his past life in North Korea. 그는 북한에서의 과거 삶을 암시하는 짧은 시들로 시를 쓰기 시작했다. “I couldn’t openly share what I’d been through, but I still wanted to make a record of it.”“내가 겪은 일을 공개적으로 털어놓을 수는 없었지만, 그래도 그 경험을 기록으로 남기고 싶었다.” At first, Hyuk believed his story couldn’t be understood by others, but was encouraged by friends and teachers in his school's music club - and eventually found his passion in rap.처음에혁은 자신의 이야기를 다른 사람들이 이해하지 못할 것이라고 생각했지만, 학교 음악 동아리 친구들과 선생님들의 격려를 받으며 결국 랩에서 자신의 열정을 찾게 되었다. Growing up, music had been a luxury, let alone K-pop which was something he had barely heard of.성장하고 있는 그에게 음악은 하나의 사치였고, 하물며 K-팝은 그가 거의 들어본 적도 없는 것이었다. But now, he channelled his thoughts of feeling lonely and of missing his father into music, referring to himself as “the loneliest of the loners” - a line in Ordinary Person, a rap song he composed as a part of a pre-debut project.하지만 이제 그는 외로움과 아버지에 대한 그리움을 음악에 담아내며, 데뷔 전 프로젝트의 일환으로 작곡한 랩 곡 ‘Ordinary Person’의 가사 중 한 구절인 “외로운 자들 중 가장 외로운 자”라고 스스로를 칭했다. Hyuk graduated from high school aged 20. Afterwards, he worked part-time at restaurants and factories to support himself. But it was in 2018 when he was featured in an educational TV programme that his luck changed.  His unique background and rapping talent caught the eye of music producer Michelle Cho, who was formerly from SM Entertainment, the agency behind some of K-pop's biggest acts. She offered him a spot in her agency, Singing Beetle.<3>"I didn't trust Michelle for about a year because I thought she was cheating me," Hyuk says, adding that defectors are often targeted by scams in the South. But gradually he realised that Ms Cho was "investing way too much time and money" for it to be anything but genuine. 사진3Singing Beetle Hyuk, Aito, Seok, and KennyS inging BeetleHyuk (top), Aito (bottom left), Seok (middle), and Kenny (right) - Nathan (not pictured) joined later 'I thought North Koreans might be scary’ Kim Seok, 24, also defected and arrived in the South in 2019, though his experience was vastly different to that of Seok's. Coming from a relatively better-off family, Seok lived close to the border with China and had access to K-pop and K-drama through smuggled USBs and SD cards. Due to safety reasons, we are unable to reveal much more about his life in the North and how he came to the South. Both boys were described by Ms Cho as "blank canvases", adding that she had never encountered trainees quite like them. Unlike Aito and Kenny, who had been immersed in music and dance from an early age, Hyuk and Seok were complete beginners. “They had absolutely no grasp of pop culture," she said. But their ability to “endure physical challenges” astonished Ms Cho. They pushed through gruelling hours of dance practice with such determination that she was worried they were “overdoing it”. Apart from music and dance lessons, their training also covered etiquette and engaging in discussions, to prepare them for media interviews.  <4> “I don’t think they were used to questioning things or expressing their opinion,” says Ms Cho. “At first, when a trainer asked the reasoning behind their thoughts, the only response was, ‘Because you said so last time'.” But after more than three years, Hyuk has made remarkable progress, she says. "Now, Hyuk questions many things. For example, if I ask him to do something, he'll reply 'Why? Why is it necessary?' Sometimes, I regret what I've done," says Ms Cho chuckling. But what do the other two boys think of their bandmates? “I was kind of afraid at first because North Korea has a hostile relationship with Japan. I thought North Koreans would be scary, but that turned out not to be true,” says Aito, who at 20 is the youngest of the four. Kenny, who spent much of his life in the US, adds that there were also small cultural differences that have taken him time to get used to. "Korean culture is very [communal] in that you eat together... that was a culture shock [to me]", he said. "I usually don't like eating with people, I prefer Netflix in my ear. But their joy comes from being collective." Late last year, the band added a fifth member, Nathan, an American of mixed Laotian and Thai heritage to the group. They aim to debut in the US later this year - a decision that the label hopes could attract more American fans. 사진4Hyuk (C) had to learn singing and dancing from scratch Playing one day - in North Korea? Dozens of K-pop groups make their debut each year and only a few, typically those managed by major labels, become popular. So it's still too early to say if 1Verse will go on to resonate with audiences. But Hyuk has big dreams, hoping that it might be possible one day for his fellow North Koreans to listen to his songs.<5>With human rights activists often sending leaflets and USBs containing K-culture content via balloons and bottles towards the North, this may prove to be less of a pipe dream than it sounds, though Hyuk also has his worries. To avoid being seen as a vocal critic of North Korea, he refers to his homeland as “the upper side” in interviews and avoids mentioning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kim has in recent years been ratcheting up his crackdown on the inflow of K-culture. Since 2020, the consumption and distribution of such content has become a crime punishable by death. A rare video obtained by BBC Korean last year, believed to be filmed in 2022, shows two teenage boys publicly sentenced to 12 years of hard labour for watching and distributing K-dramas.  One academic says it would cause a "stir" in North Korea should 1Verse's music become a hit.  "If a North Korean defector openly embraced their identity and went on to become a world-class activist, I think that would cause a stir in the North," said Ha Seung-hee, an academic specialising in music and media at Dongguk University's Institute of North Korean Studies. But his main motivation, Hyuk says, is to prove that defectors can be a success. “Many defectors see an insurmountable gap between themselves and K-pop idols. It is hardly a career option for us," said Hyuk. “So if I succeed, other defectors might be encouraged [to] have even bigger dreams. That’s why I am trying my hardest.”