"Friendly Father" or "Friendly Parent" is a North Korean pop song and

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

hymn praising the country's third and current

supreme leader A supreme leader or supreme ruler typically refers to powerful figures with an unchallenged authority, such as autocrats, dictators to spiritual and revolutionary leaders. Historic examples are Adolf Hitler () of Nazi Germany, Francisco ...

Kim Jong Un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...

. It was written by An Pun Hui and composed by Jong Chun Il. The song was first played on 16 April 2024, at a ceremony celebrating the completion of new apartment buildings in the country's capital,

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

. "Friendly Father" received considerable media attention outside of Korea due to its popularity on social media platforms like

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, where hundreds of users had uploaded videos of themselves listening or dancing to the song shortly after its release.

Release

"Friendly Father" debuted on 16 April 2024, sung live by Kim Ryu Kyong at a ceremony celebrating the completion of 10,000 new apartment units in the Hwasong district of Pyongyang. Such ceremonies are common in North Korea and broadcast on state media to promote the ruling

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is ...

. The music video for "Friendly Father" was released the next day and played on the state-controlled

Korean Central Television Korean Central Television (KCTV; ) is a North Korean television service operated by the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee, a state-owned broadcaster in North Korea. It is broadcast terrestrially via the Pyongyang TV Tower in Moranbong-g ...

Style and composition

"Friendly Father" has been described as "upbeat" and "catchy". Peter Moody, a North Korea analyst and visiting professor at

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1905 by Yi Yong-ik, Lee Yong-Ik, a prominent official of the Korean Empire, Korea University is among South Korea's oldest List of ...

, compared the song's style to that of Swedish supergroup

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

, pointing to the shared use of a "rich set of orchestral-sounding sequences". This comparison was echoed by several users of the social media platform TikTok, where the song had gone viral. Frances Mao of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

identified the song's genre as " synthy-

electro pop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a reviv ...

". The music was composed by Jong Chun Il. The lyrics of "Friendly Father", written by An Pun Hui, encourage the listener to praise Kim Jong Un as a "friendly father" and "great leader".

Reactions

North Korea

On the front page of its 20 April 2024 edition, the state-run ''

Rodong Sinmun ''Rodong Sinmun'' (; ) is a North Korean official newspaper of record of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It was first published on 1 November 1945, as ''Chŏngro'' (), serving as a communication channel for the North ...

'' newspaper published an editorial which stated: Friendly Father' has created a storm of reactions... and warmed the hearts of millions of people across the country." The

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

-based ''

Daily NK ''Daily NK'' () is an online newspaper based in Seoul, South Korea, where it reports on various aspects of North Korean society from information obtained from inside and outside of North Korea via a network of informants. North Korea is ranked 17 ...

'' reported negative reactions from residents of

North Hamgyong Province North Hamgyong Province (Hamgyŏngbukdo, ) is the northernmost province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Hamgyong Province. Geography The province is bordered by China (Jilin) to the north, S ...

, who juxtaposed their living conditions with the song's lyrics. North Hamgyong is the most underdeveloped province of North Korea.

South Korea

The

Korea Communications Standards Commission The Korea Communications Standards Commission () is an institution of the South Korean government that regulates communications including Cinema of South Korea, film, Television in South Korea, television, radio, and Internet in South Korea, inte ...

blocked the music video for "Friendly Father" at the request of the National Intelligence Service. The commission also blocked 29 alternate versions of the video. The South Korean government considers the video a violation of Article 447 of the Information and Communications Network Act, which prohibits the "distribution of illegal information", including North Korean government-produced content outlawed by the National Security Act. The commission's official statement on the block read in part: "The video is typical content linked to

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

against South Korea, as it was posted on a channel operated to connect with the outside world and is mainly focused on unilaterally idolising and glorifying Kim ong Un"

Outside of Korea

"Friendly Father" gained significant traction online in social media spaces outside of Korea, particularly on TikTok. In the two weeks following the song's release, hundreds of videos were uploaded to TikTok of users listening or dancing to the song. Analysts have described the song's reception on TikTok as a mix of genuine enjoyment and comedic ridicule.

Emma Briant Emma L. Briant (born 1979) is a British scholar and academic researcher on media, contemporary propaganda, surveillance and information warfare who was involved in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal concerning data misuse ...

, a British specialist on propaganda and information warfare, argues that while the North Korean government likely did not expect the song to go viral on social media, they are nonetheless "not naive about how this may look to Western audiences". Briant further argues that "

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

is obviously intended for this kind of mass distribution", but also that "North Korea does not necessarily put this out around the world expecting it to be taken seriously", opining that it was likely "created deliberately to be humorous".

Notes

References

{{Songs about the North Korean leaders 2024 songs Electropop songs Internet memes introduced in 2024 North Korean propaganda songs Songs about Kim Jong Un Songs in Korean