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

[김상태]

Hyuk is set to debut as a K-pop boyband member this year

혁은 올해 케이팝 보이그룹 멤버로 데뷔할 예정입니다.

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.

유혁이 중국과 러시아 북쪽 국경에 위치한 북한에서 가장 가난한 지역 중 하나인 함경북도 길거리에서 구걸을 시작한 것은 겨우 아홉 살 때였습니다.

Besides begging, he ran errands for soldiers and sold foraged mushrooms.

구걸 외에도 군인들의 심부름을 하고 채취한 버섯을 팔기도 했습니다.

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 배가 고파서 음식을 훔치기도 했는데, 한 번은 지하철 역에 아무도 없는 도시락을 훔치기도 했습니다. 도시락 안에는 상한 밥 한 숟가락이 들어 있었습니다.

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.

많은 북한 주민들에게 이런 일은 "일상의 일부"였을 뿐이라고 그는 말하며, 자신의 삶은 생존에 너무 몰두한 나머지 꿈을 꿀 여지가 거의 없었다고 덧붙였습니다.

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 가지고 있었습니다. 올해 말, 25살인 그는 케이팝 보이밴드의 멤버로 미국에서 데뷔할 예정입니다.

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('우주'로 발음)는 다섯 명의 멤버로 구성되어 있습니다: 혁, 북한 출신인 석, 일본 출신 아이토, 아시아계 미국인 케니와 네이선 등 모두 자신의 이름으로 활동하는 것을 선호합니다.

They are set to make history as the first K-pop boy band to debut with North Korean defectors.

이들은 탈북자 출신으로 데뷔한 최초의 케이팝 보이 밴드로서 새로운 역사를 쓰게 될 것입니다.

From scraps to rap  폐품에서 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 바닷가 마을에서 태어나 네 살 때 부모님이 헤어진 후 아버지와 할머니 손에 자랐습니다.

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, 그를 데려오기 위해 그에게 연락을 취했습니다.

But he refused as he was close to his father and did not want to leave him.

그러나 그는 아버지와 친했고 아버지를 떠나고 싶지 않았기 때문에 거절했습니다.

Hyuk says his family was "not extremely poor" to begin with, but the situation quickly deteriorated after his parents separated.

혁은 자신의 가정이 처음부터 "극도로 가난하지는 않았다"고 말하지만, 부모님이 헤어진 후 상황은 빠르게 악화되었습니다.

His father didn't want to work and his grandmother was too old, so Hyuk was left to his own devices to survive.

아버지는 일을 하고 싶지 않았고 할머니는 너무 늙으셨기 때문에 혁은 혼자서 생계를 꾸려야 했습니다.

Eventually, his father persuaded him to join his mother, and in 2013 Hyuk escaped from North Korea.

결국 아버지가 그에게 어머니에게 가라고 설득해 2013년 혁은 북한을 탈출했습니다.

It took months for him to arrive in the South, after going through several countries.

여러 나라를 거쳐 남한에 도착하기까지 몇 달이 걸렸습니다.

He has chosen not to reveal specifics of the route, as he fears putting other future defectors at risk.

그는 다른 탈북자들이 위험에 처할 것을 우려해 구체적인 경로를 밝히지 않기로 했습니다.

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Hyuk lived in North Hamgyong Province

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 도착한 그는 어머니의 재정적 지원을 받아 기숙학교로 옮기기 전 1년 동안만 어머니와 함께 살았습니다.

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 전 초등학교를 겨우 마친 혁은 남한의 치열한 경쟁 교육 시스템에 적응하는 데 어려움을 겪었습니다.

Writing was the one thing he found solace in, he says.

글쓰기는 그가 위안을 얻을수 있는 유일한 것이었다고 말합니다.

He started with short poems alluding to his past life in North Korea. “I couldn’t openly share what I’d been through, but I still wanted to make a record of it.”

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.

Growing up, music had been a luxury, let alone K-pop which was something he had barely heard of. 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.

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.

"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.

Singing Beetle

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Hyuk (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.

“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.

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Hyuk (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.

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.”