According to the AFP:
South Korea’s top court ruled Monday that possession of instrumental music with titles praising North Korea violates a tough national security law.
The supreme court upheld a two-year jail term, suspended for four years, given to a female activist identified only as Song.
Song was charged in 2008 with storing 14 MP3 music files with titles praising North Korea on a USB storage device.
State prosecutors accused her of violating the law banning distribution of pro-North Korean material.
A district court acquitted Song, saying the titles alone could not define the songs as praising the communist North.
But an appeal court ruled that the songs written by North Korea to praise its leadership contained “enemy-benefiting” expressions and threatened the South’s security — regardless of their lack of lyrics.
The supreme court supported the appeals court, saying it took into consideration “motivation” and various other circumstances.
South Korea bans distribution of publications or other material praising North Korea and unauthorised contact with its people. Offenders can face heavy jail terms.
As citizens of a modern open democracy, I would hope many South Koreans are embarrassed by this kind of silly censorship. I have dozens of North Korean songs on my iPod and not once have they influenced my opinion of the DPRK. They have made me laugh, however.
If you would like to hear the DPRKs song about “CNC”, which was introduced to South Korean factories back in the 1970s, click here.
Read the full story here:
S.Korea court rules pro-North music breaches law
AFP
11/8/2010
In addition to being an embarrassment for a free democratic society, it is a shame that North Korean instrumental music is also banned in South Korean as South Koreans could probably learn more than a few things about music from their Northern brothers.
Sounds like something NK would do.