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Date : August 21, 2014
A young North Korean defector finds his voice — in rap
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korean-defector [948]
Most rap songs do not deal with matters of geopolitical significance — such as nuclear weapons and labor camps — but Kang Chunhyok is not your typical rapper.

The 29 year old is an escapee from North Korea, where the most boundary pushing music is revolutionary opera extolling the virtues of Kim Il Sung, the countrys founder.

Now, Kang wants to be the greatest rapper North Korea has ever produced. With a lack of rivals to the title, he may well be able to claim it.

You took money that we made digging earth to fund nuclear weapons. Take out that fat from your pot belly. Nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons, he rapped at the opening of an exhibition in Seoul this month titled Kkotjebi in Bloom.

Not only does Kang show the world the reality of North Korea through music, but he also tells his stories with artwork. As a senior majoring in fine arts at Hongik University, one of the most prestigious creative colleges in South Korea, he had artwork on display to draw attention to the hardships that children in North Korea face.

The exhibition was organized by the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization.

Give me back that dirtied money. Show me the money, he concluded, to cheers from the humanitarian workers, foreign diplomats and academics in the gallery, and from people who happened to be walking along Insadonggil, a central Seoul street lined with art galleries and tourist shops.

Kang is one of a generation of North Korean defectors coming of age and finding his voice in South Korea. His triumph is even more noteworthy given that he was a kkotjebi, or flowering swallow, the term used in North Korea for homeless children, a reference to their constant hunt for food and shelter.

A well known South Korean hiphop artist, Yang Donggeun — also called YDG — has volunteered to teach Kang how to rap, and supporters started a crowdfunding campaign to help launch his musical career.

People here dont know anything about whats going on in North Korea, Kang said in an interview at the exhibition, so Im trying to show what is really happening there.

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST

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