Skeptic Review

Photo: Dennis Rodman singing I Did it My Way with Moranbong Band. Courtesy Vice News.

Photo courtesy Facebook.

The Moranbong Band was formed under the direction of Kim Jong Un. The members of the band are also members of the military, so technically the group is considered a military band. Performances are reserved for the elite and are often televised on state-run TV. In this video, the group is in front of a large screen projecting footage of missile launches. (VIDEO MAY BE BLOCKED FROM VIEWING)

According to the group’s Facebook Page:

Kim Jong Un organized the Moranbong band as required by the new century, prompted by a grandiose plan to bring about a dramatic turn in the field of literature and arts this year in which a new century of Juche Korea begins.

The band just several months old raised its curtain for its significant demonstration performance proclaiming its birth before the world.
The repertoire of the performance divided into two parts included colorful numbers such as light music “Arirang”, female vocal quintet “Let’s Learn”, light music “Yeppuni”, light music and song “Victors”, female trio “Silk Weaving Girl of Nyongbyon”, string quartet “We Can’t Live without his Care”, foreign light music “Chardash”, “Victory”, “Song of Gypsy”, female sextet “Fluttering Red Flag” and light music and song “Suite of World Fable Songs.”

Source: Samheroyang canal on YouTube

For more photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/MoranbongBand/

UPDATE: SEOUL, Jan. 12, 2018 (Yonhap) — A rare performance by a North Korean art troupe will take place soon on the southern side of the tense inter-Korean border amid a mixed sense of curiosity and doubt over the North’s intent.

After inter-Korean high-level talks Tuesday, North Korea agreed to send a delegation of athletes, cheerleaders, an art troupe, taekwondo demonstration teams, along with high-ranking officials, to the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Olympics in the South.

The next questions are what kind of performing group North Korea will dispatch to the South and whether their performances can burnish a more positive image for the country, they said.

“The North is using an art troupe as a card to win the hearts of South Koreans. Under sanctions, music performances could be a good tool for North Korea to weaken its image as a developer of nukes and missiles,” said Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and head of the Seoul-based World Institute for North Korean Studies.

Even before the two Koreas begin to work out details over the North’s participation, media speculation is rampant over whether the Moranbong Band, an all-female band from North Korea, will come to the South.

The Moranbong Band was established in July 2012 by the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, featuring Western-style music and outfits.

This photo, carried by North Korea’s state news agency on April 2, 2014, shows a performance by the Moranbong Band, an all-female music band in North Korea. (Yonhap)

The band is known for their performances of the totalitarian state’s propaganda songs, as well as Western pop music, including the theme song of the film “Rocky.”

Hyon Song-wol, who is reportedly a former girlfriend of Kim Jong-un, is the leader of the band.

The Moranbong Band abruptly canceled a planned performance in Beijing in December 2015 and returned home.

The reason for that cancellation is not known, but a diplomatic source said that China had decided to send officials of lower rank to the concert in response to Kim Jong-un hinting that Pyongyang had developed a hydrogen bomb.

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