‘Friendly Father’: Song praising Kim Jong-un goes viral on TikTok, South Korea bans it

North Korean propaganda song banned on the social network TikTok in South Korea. The French-language song “Friendly Father” praising dictator Kim Jong Un has gone viral on the platform in recent weeks.

These short videos, playing in the background and showing dances, receive thousands of likes and millions of views. On Monday, South Korea announced it was banning the song from the platform and blocking access to about thirty videos due to “psychological warfare,” CNN reported.

“Excellent leader and friendly parent”

The song was unveiled in April at a concert celebrating the completion of housing construction in the capital Pyongyang, according to North Korea’s state-run North Korean Central News Agency.

His words praise the North Korean leader. He has been compared to “a great leader and a friendly parent.” The clip shows North Koreans enthusiastically singing an orchestral song that proclaims that Kim Jong Un is “lovingly caring” for the North Koreans, CNN explains.

Over two million views

North Korean propaganda is not new. But this time it saw the light through the social network TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese giant ByteDance. The song’s virality is due to content creators around the world who have used it to create their own video montages, complete with dancing. Some videos have received more than two million views.

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service asked the Korea Communications Standards Commission to block 29 videos that used the song. In South Korea, a national security law blocks access to North Korean government websites and media outlets. The goal: limit the impact of Kim Jong Un’s autocratic regime and punish behavior that promotes the dictator.

Alexandra Leonzini, a Cambridge University researcher (an expert on North Korean music), explains to our CNN colleagues that Gen Z’s interactions with TikTok were “not showing allegiance to the regime” but rather “mocking it.”

In an interview with CNN, Ha Seung-hee, a professor at Dongguk University (South Korea), points out that “North Korea did not intend to do this, but it was an algorithm or something, the video attracted attention,” and once Pyongyang learns that the posting method is effective on social networks, “he will be able to create new content.”

The two territories are still at war

The two Koreas were divided after the 1953 Korean War ended in an armistice. But Kimg Jong-un continues to threaten his neighbor if his territory is violated.

Millions of North Koreans live in poverty under a totalitarian dictatorship that lasted more than seven decades and spanned three generations of the Kim dynasty. The regime controls everything from food rations to access to education and distribution of jobs.