North Korean state TV aired a snippet of a song by American pop star Bruno Mars in a recent broadcast, NK News analysis shows, despite the country’s strict controls banning consumption of foreign media.
The song appeared in Thursday’s evening bulletin on Korean Central Television (KCTV), which reported on the two-day Pyongyang International Figure Skating Festival featuring athletes from North Korea, China, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The broadcast briefly shows a performance by a Russian duo skating to Bruno Mars’ 2011 hit “It Will Rain,” airing seven seconds of the routine featuring the song’s opening lyrics, “If you ever leave me, baby.”
Foreign visitors and diplomats attended the event, alongside North Korean spectators and high-ranking officials, and while state media didn’t show the full performance, those present at the venue would have heard much more of the song, including lyrics in which the singer says he would need morphine and a “whole lot of medication” to deal with the pain of a breakup.
Russian figure skaters perform t0 the Bruno Mars song “It Will Rain.” | Video: KCTV (Oct. 9, 2025)
Most North Korean viewers will have likely been unfamiliar with the song or Bruno Mars, and censors evidently did not see airing a snippet as a serious security concern despite the state’s repeated warnings against “bourgeois imperialist culture.”
But the broadcast of the song on state TV nonetheless highlights the awkward situations that can arise from North Korea’s burgeoning ties with Russia, a country with a far more open society where foreign culture is widely enjoyed despite political tensions with the West.
Under the Anti-Reactionary Thought Law and Youth Education Guarantee Act, the DPRK has cracked down on the consumption and distribution of foreign media in recent years, particularly among younger generations.
However, as this case shows, authorities inevitably face a dilemma about how strictly to enforce such laws when allowing outsiders in.
Earlier this year, North Korea resumed tourism for non-Russian visitors for the first time in five years. But the country suddenly closed its doors again shortly after, raising the possibility that security officials are worried about foreign influence.
Russians remain the only tourists who can enter the DPRK, and the two countries, bounded by a military alliance, have continued to organize bilateral exchanges and events while pushing to bolster cooperation over the war in Ukraine.
Under such exchanges, North Korean authorities have allowed Russian artists to perform sanctioned songs for North Korean audiences, most notably when the cross-wearing pop star Shaman sang nationalist songs at a concert in August.
Shaman and other Russian performers also gave a concert in Pyongyang last week during celebrations from the ruling party’s 80th founding anniversary.
Meanwhile, North Korea showcased its capability to maintain internal control and stability during its latest military parade. KCTV showed a march of a special forces unit for public security, which it described as ready “to thoroughly track down, suppress and eliminate any impure attempts or acts that threaten the stability of our system.”
Anton Sokolin contributed reporting to this article. Edited by Bryan Betts