North Korean women in China catch ‘Disco Fever’

The female factory workers could get in trouble if Pyongyang finds out they were dancing like decadent capitalists.

By Kim Jieun for RFA Korean

A rare video clip that shows North Korean women — dispatched to China as workers — dancing with Chinese men to loud disco music, indicates that they are picking up elements of capitalist culture that would be forbidden in their restrictive home country.

The video, shot in the city of Dandong, which lies just across the border from North Korea’s Sinuiju, was provided to RFA Korean by a resident of Dandong who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The women shake their hips and twist their bodies to the upbeat music, and this is referred to as “disco dancing” in North Korea and is listed as part of “decadent capitalist culture.”

Since North Korea passed the Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act in 2020, the government has been cracking down on people for embracing culture from the outside, including by punishing those caught dancing like a capitalist, watching smuggled South Korean and Western movies and TV shows, or even using South Korean vocabulary when they speak.

But Pyongyang still needs to send workers to other countries to earn foreign currency for the cash-strapped regime.

According to a UN report published earlier this year, about 100,000 North Korean workers are currently abroad in over 40 countries, including China and Russia, a violation of sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

But nevertheless, the workers are there, and the young women who were sent to Dandong are enjoying their life in the outside world. In years past they would have had to keep this a secret, but these days, even the North Korean companies are aware that their employees are dancing and partying.

“Foreign style culture is spreading in some North Korean companies dispatched to China,” the Dandong resident told RFA Korean. “In the video, a foreign-style dance party is taking place under strict supervision of the North Korean company authorities.”

Laugh and have fun

He said it was more and more99 common these days for North Koreans and Chinese to mingle during these kinds of disco parties, to the point that it’s now just a common occurrence.

“These North Korean women are people too, so it’s only natural that they would want to dance closely with men,” the resident said. “This is only possible because the president of the North Korean company they work for approved it.”

He said that many of the women are selected to participate in these parties because of their skill at dancing or singing.

“North Korean workers do not shy away from the opportunity to laugh and have fun while eating well-prepared Chinese food,” the resident said.

In other cities where North Koreans are sent to work, Chinese people will pay a North Korean company to hold dance parties and supply the young ladies, a resident of Shenyang told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“The workers are made to promise that they will never reveal that they danced with Chinese people when they return home and are debriefed,” he said.

The company president and the security personnel, who have connections with North Korea’s state security department, sometimes join the party themselves, he said.

“On the occasion of Chinese national holidays or personal birthdays, parties are held in quiet areas of the factory with selected North Korean female workers.”

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.