North Korean Rhythmic Exercise

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About

North Korean Rhythmic Exercise, usually called "Rhythmic Exercise" (Korean: 율동체조, Yuldong chejo or 률동체조, Ryuldong chejo; Japanese: 律動体操, Ritsudou Taiso), refers to a series of calisthenics produced by the Korean Workers' Party in the 1990s. The video clips were been popular visual resources for audio-dubbing parodies in the early days of niconico Douga (niconico).

Origin

According to the Korean Wikipedia's article^[1] and a Korean Central Television program called "The Love to the people is also in the rhythmic exercise" (KCTV)^[2] aired in August 2015,^[3]^[4]^[5] this exercise series was ordered by order of Kim Jong-il in March of 1993 as an improved version of similar exercises in Kim Il-sung era, People's Health Exercise (인민보건체조), at the North Korean Sports Science Center. After the release of the "adults" version of the video, 4 more rhythmic exercises, for children, elders, toddlers and babies, were released serially in the 1990s. Its soundtracks, except for the toddlers version, are played by Wangjaesan Light Music Band.^[6] These official tutorial movies for the exercises are still aired on KCTV in 2010s.

Left: Adults version in 2000s | Right: Children version in 2000s

The Korean Workers' Party also created several sports-themed rhythmic exercises (Basketball, Soccer and Wrestling versions) during Kim Jong-un era.

Spread

In late 2002, North Korean rhythmic exercise videos began being aired on the Japanese Television show Black Wide Show^[7] which often picked up KCTV's news and propaganda footage for fun. A few years later, the videos became fodder for video remixes and parodies on YouTube and niconico. Particularly, the children version had been often used for audio-dubbing videos which mashup its footage with anime or video game music between 2007 and 2011.^[8]^[9]