Countering North Korean propaganda

The challenge of countering influence in cyber becomes more peculiar as Western TikTokers freely dance to the beat of North Korean propaganda

Executive Summary: The "Friendly Father" TikTok trend reflects the DPRK's strategy to spread its propaganda globally through platforms like TikTok, using cultural elements like K-pop to appeal to Western audiences. Despite its serious implications, many users engage with the content superficially, overlooking the regime's authoritarian nature. This underscores the challenge of countering foreign influence in the digital era without full cultural context, complicating national security efforts.

DPRK's TikTok Propaganda: The Cultural Challenge to National Security

The Friendly Father sensation illustrates one of the challenging aspects in countering influence and asymmetric power dynamics in the cyber realm. Whether the topic is hackers, botnets, trolls or content, nations such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) control domestic access to information. Yet, target international audiences, as evidenced by the U.S. Department of Justice's recent IT workers case, with a spectrum of influence operations hitting U.S. national security interests. North Korea restricts content critical of its government on media platforms all the while messaging audiences abroad via the PRC’s media assets. This is where content and TikTok enter the stage.

The timing of the TikTok ban could not come soon enough as the public reaction to Friendly Father presents the velocity problem of contemporary national security threats. Over the last two weeks, the South China Morning Post and BBC are reporting on the viral trend of public glee over the DPRK's latest pop song on Bytedance's soon-to-be-gone U.S. social media platform TikTok. The English translation of the lyrics appears to have occurred after reporters began documenting the phenomena, showing why cultural context is relevant in the battle of influence in today's modern global communications.

In an unprecedented change, Kim Jong-un wants to be called Friendly Father. Other translators interpret the title as Friendly Parent. Both interpretations make sense given North Korean mythology. Kim Jong-un and his family are, in essence, gods in North Korea's world. The calendar, history books, and future of the nation revolve around this family, which is not universally understood context on western social media. Based on my research, it seems the DPRK is pushing to integrate its heavily controlled, communist ideals and culture into global mainstream markets.

Most likely, those in the North Korean government who produce the content, or perhaps outsource production to Russia or China, are aware that North Korean is not a global language. Even South Koreans struggle to understand the North Korean dialect, as explained by Yeonmi Park. The lyrics are mostly for the domestic North Korean population, but Western TikTokers are unwittingly cheering Kim Jong-un on as Father.

Based off Reddit responses, some viewers underestimate the effect of North Korean propaganda. Some user-comments show a clear recognition that Friendly Father is propaganda, but dismiss the seriousness of the tactics involved to sway opinion through such content. As if, to know not the language, then one is immune to the influence. However, the modern catchy Abba beat of the tune, which is a key feature of the song’s slight global popularity, is definitely for the outside world.

Music is prescribed in North Korea, so the K-pop sound to Friendly Father is a key component to the global influence campaign. If the song can bring outsiders to listen based off the melody, then perhaps TikTok users will discuss North Korea in a positive tone. In effect, this is precisely what has occurred on TikTok and other social media platforms regurgitating the content.

More shrewdly, the tactic opens the conversation online for users like this to post supportive comments, with nearly 700 likes, on North Korea. Like the Russian language North Korean propaganda, the purpose is to place seeds of doubt in our minds to contradict reality. In a world of mass confusion, on which flat-earthers still roam, some of us fall prey.

Friendly Father has first worlders believing that to post videos of themselves dancing along is not, in fact, such a big deal. Despite some awareness of North Korea's dictatorship, social media users dismiss the consequences of socializing North Korea's messaging campaign. As a result, the North Korean song is not a conversation of the existential threat communist propaganda poses on social media. Instead, it is a funny topic full of jokes about this quirky K-pop beat with old, communist musical styling. Mission accomplished, North Korea.

The interviews of North Koreans defectors are stories of escapees, not ex-pats. The Internet is full of Yeonmi Park’s testimonies and videos of North Koreans making the mad dash across the 38th parallel. The tragedy of student and tourist Otto Warmbier , who died from horrific, unimaginable torture shortly after his release from a North Korean prison in 2017, over alleged charges to “steal a propaganda poster”. Clearly, there is no joke surrounding the methodical, menacing, and serious intent the DPRK employs to control its population and image.

In 2014, Kim Jong-un held Hollywood hostage over The Interview with Seth Rogen. According to Mr. Rogan, the North Korean dictator actually called the President of the United States, President Obama, threatening war over the film’s premiere. The situation was serious enough that The Interview went straight to video. There is nothing light-hearted about Kim Jong-un’s reactions nor his behavior over the past year. 

Kim Jong-un ordered tests of its ballistic missiles in the Pacific while threatening to launch them on South Korea and Japan. Friendly Father had Westerners dancing while Russia uses North Korean weapons to fire on Ukrainians. Luckily for Ukraine, some of these artillery systems implode upon launch. Meanwhile, North Korea's arms-partnership with Russia emboldens President Putin's threats to launch nuclear holocaust on Europe with its tactical nuclear ballistic missiles positioned in Belarus. For a brief moment in time, Friendly Father had some of us forget how North Korea has spent 2024. This is the greater risk of propaganda.

To be frank, countering foreign influence in the form of Friendly Father is a weird task due to the speed of global communications and growing interest of communist ideals in young Westerners. The privilege of quick, unfettered access to digital information, lacking cultural context, makes Western audiences naive as to the threat and nature of foreign state propaganda. The bizarre nature of this situation, with the serious consequences attached, highlights why the human element of the cyber environment truly perplexes national security strategists.

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Gray Truths©️2024