Sitcom "High Kick" a hit among North Korean youths

MBC sitcom "High Kick 2" [MBC]

"High Kick," a smash-hit sitcom series in South Korea, is currently popular among the younger generation in North Korea, a media report has said.

Radio Free Asia (RFA), a U.S.-based non-profit news service, quoted a source in the Yanggang Province of the North as saying that youths in the province's city of Hyesan have become fans of MBC's sitcoms “High Kick 1” (2006) and “High Kick 2” (2009).

The source said the shows have “given them something to laugh out loud about,” particularly for middle school students and young women.

The sitcom, which was introduced in the region around November of last year, also circulated so quickly that nowadays, a number of high school students are said to have at least one DVD of the show.

A single DVD, containing five episodes, costs 4,000 North Korean won, which is worth about two kilograms of rice in the poverty-stricken communist nation.

“I didn’t find it that interesting at first since the characters all looked a bit silly. But after following the episodes, I think I became addicted to it,” a local in Yanggang was quoted as saying in the report. “If I have one DVD, I can keep watching other episodes by swapping it with other people’s.”

Regarding a possible crackdown on sitcom by authorities, the source pointed out that such is unlikely to happen for the time being since even high-ranking officials are likely to have watched the show and there has not been any orders handed down from the government on it so far.

The sitcom, which was aired for two seasons, was a big hit in South Korea starring well noted actors including Lee Soon-jae, Jung Bo-suk, Yoon Si-woon, Choi Daniel, Sin Se-gyeong, Park Hae-mi and Jung Il-woo, and is expected to launch its third season during the latter half of this year.

The Korean peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel with the Soviet Union administering the North and the United States the South in 1945 following a three-year war which ended in a truce, and not a peace treaty.

Hence, the two Koreas, heavily armed on both sides, are technically still at war and all South Korean media products are banned in the North and vice versa.

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