Thursday Afternoon Diversion: Take On Me (DPRK-Style)

By Kevin Robinson in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 23, 2012 9:00PM

Yesterday we took at a look how the North Korean "card stunt" is performed by Norwegians. Today, we follow artist Morten Traavik to Pyongyang to see a group of North Korea's best accordionists performing the 80s Euro-hit standard "Take On Me" by A-Ha. "When I was in North Korea, I lent them a CD of Take on Me on a Monday morning. By the following Wednesday morning they had mastered the song, with no annotation and no outside help. It showed incredible skill," Traavik told the BBC. "People [in Norway] are amazed by their skills and also by the fact that you can have fun in North Korea. I think that insight really rocks a lot of people's established preconceptions about the country."