The are a Japanese all-women

fan club A fan club is an organized group of fans, generally of a celebrity. Most fan clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to support them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the pers ...

of the

Moranbong Band The Moranbong Band (, ), also known as the Moran Hill Orchestra, is a North Korean girl group. Performing interpretive styles of pop, rock, and fusion, they are the first all-female band from the DPRK, and made their world debut on 6 July 2012 ...

, a North Korean

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

. The club has held live performances where members dance to North Korean pop songs, following the

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

of the Moranbong Band. The club's founder and leader is Chunhun, a Japanese illustrator who became interested in North Korean culture after coming across

North Korean propaganda Propaganda is widely used and produced by the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). Most propaganda is based on the ''Juche'' ideology, veneration of the ruling Kim family, the promotion of the Workers' Party ...

art during her university studies. Chunhun has stated that her goal is to introduce North Korean culture to the Japanese public and normalize their perceptions of the country. She has compared her club's interest in North Korean music to other Japanese women's interest in

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

and American singer

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

. Club members have received backlash from Japanese nationalists and right-wingers due to their perceived sympathies towards North Korea.

Overview

The emergence of state-sponsored girl groups in North Korea has given rise to an overseas fanbase, especially in countries with large

Korean diaspora The Korean diaspora consists of around 7.3 million people, both descendants of early emigrants from the Korea, Korean Peninsula, as well as more recent emigrants from Korea. Around 84.5% of overseas Koreans live in just five countries: the Unit ...

communities, such as Japan. The 2012 debut of the Moranbong Band, with their unique interpretive styles, is credited with starting a niche

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...

of North Korean pop music parallel to the

Korean Wave The Korean Wave, or ''hallyu'' (; ), is a cultural phenomenon in which the global popularity of South Korean popular culture has dramatically risen since the 1990s. Worldwide interest in Korean culture has been led primarily by the spread of K-p ...

in the South. The Military-First Girls are an all-women fan club of the Moranbong Band organized by a Japanese woman with the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Chunhun. Club members occasionally meet for a , with discussion topics ranging from their love lives to North Korea. The club held a live performance at a venue in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

on 2 November 2017. Members dressed in homemade uniforms resembling those of the Moranbong Band and danced to North Korean pop songs, following the choreography of their idols.

Members

Chunhun

Chunhun is the founder and leader of the Military-First Girls. A

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

illustrator and visual arts major from

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, Chunhun grew an interest in North Korean culture after encountering North Korean propaganda art in university. She was previously a student intern for ''

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 ...

'', a South Korean news website that focuses on developments in North Korea. It was during this time that she began calling herself the "Military-First Girl". She started an online presence in 2013 and has attracted a significant following on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. However, she attributes her difficulty in finding a job to her public profile. Chunhun has stated that she is interested in North Korean culture specifically and does not support the North Korean government. In a 2017 interview with ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', she said: "By introducing North Korea's culture, like its fashion, music and arts, I want the Japanese public to realize there are good people living there and that they can't be blamed for what the government does." Chunhun often wears North Korean

cosmetics Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either Natural product, natural source ...

purchased from souvenir shops in the Chinese city of

Dandong Dandong ( zh, s=丹东 , t=丹東 , p=Dāndōng; lit. "Red East"), formerly known as Andong, is a coastal prefecture-level city in southeastern Liaoning province, in the northeastern region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest ...

, located on the

China–North Korea border The China–North Korea border is an Border, international border separating China and North Korea, extending from Korea Bay in the west to a China–North Korea–Russia tripoint, tripoint with Russia in the east. The total length of the borde ...

. She is also an avid reader of the ''

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 ...

'', the official newspaper of the

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 ...

and North Korea's official

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large newspaper circulation, circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and i ...

Unha

Ri Unha (a pseudonym) is the only Korean member of the Military-First Girls. She is a

Zainichi Korean () are ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and are citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South Korean nationals who have immigrated to Japan since t ...

who attended

North Korean schools in Japan North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

run by

Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,
" ''

, an affiliate of the North Korean government. In her high school years, she learned about contemporary North Korean music from her textbooks and exercised to it during

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

classes. She also learned how to play the ''

sohaegeum The ''sohaegeum'' () is a North Korean musical instrument, developed in the 1960s. It is essentially a modernized form of the ''haegeum'' (a traditional Korean bowed vertical fiddle). Its tuning pegs are like those of the violin, inserted from ...

'', a North Korean

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

. She attended a

Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble (PEE) is an orchestra from North Korea (DPRK). It is famous for its performances of revolutionary and folk songs, as well as some covers of pop songs in the west, including " Brother Louie" by Modern Talking and " ...

concert when they toured Japan. Unha joined the Military-First Girls after discovering their

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

profile. Like many other members, her renewed interest in North Korean music came from her viewing of the Moranbong Band's debut performance on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Others

Another member of the club is a young housewife from Tokyo whose perception of North Korea was changed after she went on a four-day tour of the country with her husband. She described the North Korean 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 ...

as "more prosperous and cleaner than hehad thought", and the North Korean soldiers who followed her tour group as "very kind" and "human too".

Reception

The Military-First Girls have their own fans, known as ''tongmu'' (), a Korean term used chiefly in North Korea that is equivalent to the English term ''

comrade In political contexts, comrade means a fellow party member. The political use was inspired by the French Revolution, after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers. Since the Russian Revolution, popular culture in t ...

''. Unha credits her club with creating a cultural bridge between the local Japanese and Korean (Chongryon) communities. The Military-First Girls have received significant backlash online from Japanese nationalists and right-wingers. Club members have been accused of being "anti-social" and "North Korean spies". Chunhun has personally been told to "drop dead" and been called a "cockroach". Chunhun has defended her club by comparing their interest in North Korean culture to Japanese women's interest in the cultures of South Korea and the United States. In interviews conducted in 2017, she said: "I listen to he Moranbong Band'ssongs for the same reason many Japanese women listen to K-pop or Taylor Swift.... Just like how there are women who like K-pop and South Korean culture, or women who like American singer Taylor Swift and wear makeup like hers, we just love North Korean culture." In a 2021 interview, Unha described the backlash that followed the publication of the 2017 interviews: "The situation got serious after we did our first interview with '' Chunichi News'', and then the criticism got even worse after the ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

'' article on us. One member ended up losing her job. The people who criticized us were deluded into thinking we were propagandists for the Kim Jong Un regime even though it clearly said in the articles that we did not politically support the government." The Military First Girls' Twitter account was deleted sometime after the 2017 interviews.

References

{{Reflist Music fan clubs Music of North Korea 2013 establishments in Japan Japan–North Korea relations