あこがれの北朝鮮
Let’s go play in North Korea
Merry North Korea
North Korea is a good country
North Korea is for everyone
Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim Hyun-hui, Kim Hye-gyong
If you shout, “Hey, Kim”
Everyone will turn around
Let’s go play in North Korea
Our beloved North Korea
North Korea is a good country
They get you there for free
Take a walk on the beach with your sweetheart
And they’ll kidnap you to get you there
Someday surely we’ll all get along
Someday surely we’ll live in such a world
There’ll be no discrimination, no prejudice, no borders
There’ll be no food shortage, no nuclear inspections, no spy ships, no Taepodongs
Our beloved Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Let’s go play in North Korea
Merry North Korea
North Korea is a good country
North Korea is for everyone
Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim, Kim, Kim Hyun-hui
If you shout, “Hey, Kim”
Everyone will turn around
Let’s go play in North Korea
Our beloved North Korea
North Korea is a good country
Peaceful North Korea
Our beloved North Korea
Someday surely we’ll all get along
Someday surely we’ll live in such a world
There’ll be no discrimination, no prejudice, no borders
Our beloved Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Imawano Kiyoshiro is a Japanese musician. “あこがれの北朝鮮” was released in 1995. In 2003, the song was censored by Tokyo FM, which interrupted its live broadcast of the Earth Day concert at Budokan that year to excise the offending performance. The text above is a translation of the lyrics of two versions of the song as performed in the videos above. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).