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What exactly was South Korea broadcasting to the North?

August 24, 2015

“Former North Korean soldiers who escaped [have said] these [K-pop] songs made them want to desert,” a defense ministry spokesman said, according to local Korean media.

K-pop may have the rest of the globe dancing on their feet, but for North Korea, it seems to have been a trigger for the heightened tension that plagued the Korean peninsula these past few days.

South Korea came to an agreement Monday with North Korea — with which it exchanged fire last week followed by days-long talks — to turn off its propaganda loudspeakers, which are installed in 11 locations around the DMZ.

The question is, what exactly was South Korea broadcasting?

As it turns out — Big Bang’s “Bang Bang Bang,” Girls’ Generation’s “Tell Me Your Wish” and IU’s “Mind,” according to Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

In the past, the speakers have been known to broadcast K-pop hits like 4minute’s “HuH (Hit Your Heart,” which carry barely masked messages that read, in part, “Baby, you’re kidding me? I do what I want, and I do it my way.”

Messages carried by the defense ministry’s newest selections included boy band Big Bang singing, “I’ll set this place on fire. I want to make you crazy, burn your heart … bang, bang, bang! No one move, no one move. Let’s see this night to the end. Boom, boom, boom.”

“Tell Me Your Wish,” a more cloying track, has the mega-hit girl group saying, “Tell me your wish. Aren’t you tired of your dull days? Have you been buried underneath your unremarkable life? Wake up now. I’m your superstar, shining star … I want to give you dreams and passion, all of it. I’m the goddess of luck who will grant you your wishes.”

“Former North Korean soldiers who escaped [have said] these songs made them want to desert,” a defense ministry spokesman said, according to local Korean media.

The loudspeakers had broadcast eight hours a day.

The latest conflict between the two estranged countries, which have technically been at war since 1950, was among the tensest in recent years.