Folk songs from North Korea.

Records travel. Some more than others. Some even crossed borders they kind of were not supposed to. In fact, North Korean records were available for sale in stores dedicated to foreign tourists. Even though, that doesn’t make them easy available today.
Having access to that kind of records demand a well established network, or, sometimes, just sheer luck. I’ve recently been gratified with three North Korean records and I thought they deserved to be shared as they are not that common nowadays anyway.
But first of all, they are worth listening, giving a hint of how Korean folk music was played in the North in the 50s and 60s.

The informations below have been provided by Kiml Meun-Gil, who was kind enough to translate the labels for me and gave me additional informations on the songs.

All three records have been produced in the 50’s or the early 60’s by the North Korea Cultural Selection, National Record Production Center, Pyongyang – The official and sole recording production company in North Korea. Though the following sides are traditional songs from before the division and therefore have not been written to promote communist ideolgy. They are untouched by the Communist Party.

Two records were found in their original sleeves. The red-printed one sees the price of the record stamped on it, and fully detailed explanation of how to use and preserve the record, wich was quite surprising for Meun-Gil as, as a Korean record collector, he never saw that before.