Thread by @BonicMichael

A Lot More Than A "Girl Group"

The Moranbong Band, DPRK's string quartet fronting a rock-n-roll band, is Kim Jong Un’s personally minted, musical-tour-de-force, Millennial vehicle for Propaganda & Agitation and cultural diplomacy and is the cultural weather vane for the regime.

2/Pyongyang's elite and Millennial Gen love Moranbong Band and the Old Guard of Kim's & Ri's parents' generation can’t get enough of them while the West & South Korea sees them only as “North Korea’s version of the Spice Girls”.

3/Yet beneath the masterfully orchestrated and optically polished veneer, Moranbong Band is a whole lot more than just a string quartet fronting a rock-n-roll band.

How much do you know about North Korea's top girl group 'Moranbong Band' ?

4/Adam Cathcart put Moranbong Band under the microscope in 4 Aug 2012 to give us the straight dope:

Analysis of the Moranbong Band as an instrument of DPRK cultural diplomacy, interaction with “First Lady” Ri Sol-ju, and the geriatrics of the Politburo.”

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1381078920183771138?s=20Adam

5/“Kim began a concerted effort to spread propaganda though new cultural policies. Moranbong Band was a symbol Kim put forward in order to show people the direction of change in North Korea.”

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1381087636958314496?s=20

“”Kim used Moranbong Band to signal change in the regime. From

6/"now on, propaganda and agitation will be carried out based on Morangbong Band,” [said] Lee Woo-Young. "Cultural standards of North Korea's people began to change," Lee said. "This means they could no longer unify the people with the old, traditional-style cultural arts. So

7/"they have to meet the new cultural standards.””

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