The N.Korean defectors turned K-pop idols of 1Verse

PARIS: Originally, K-pop groups were first and foremost made up of South Koreans. But in recent years, this cultural industry has been enriched by talent from beyond the country’s borders.

These include Lisa, the Thai singer of BlackPink, as well as Yu Hyuk and Kim Seok, two North Korean defectors and members of the boy band 1Verse.

Even before its members take their first steps on stage, the 1Verse boy band is already causing a stir. This K-pop group is making history by including two North Korean artists among its members – a major first.

Yu Hyuk and Kim Seok are both from North Korea, but their backgrounds are very different.

Yu Hyuk grew up very poor in Kyongsong province, in the northeast of the country. He began working at the age of seven to support his family. He sometimes stole cement to sell to the highest bidder, or begged in the street.

“We were essentially beggars who happened to have nothing else but a house,” Yu Hyuk told the Wall Street Journal.

Kim Seok had more luck in life. He grew up near North Korea’s border with China, in a wealthier family.

Both young men left their homeland in the hope of a better life. Like them, tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s.

Most defectors do so via China and then a third country such as Thailand. Yu Hyuk crossed three different countries before reaching Seoul, a journey that lasted a year and a half, according to the Wall Street Journal.