North Korean authorities have been cracking down on the flood of South Korean entertainment media, dubbed "the South Wave," according to intelligence sources in Seoul. But South Korean movies and TV dramas are proving unstoppably popular in the North.

Videotapes, CDs and other materials are being smuggled into the reclusive nation, mostly from neighboring China, the sources say.

"North Korean authorities have waged what they call ‘psychological warfare’ against ‘exotic lifestyles’ referring to South Korean pop culture," an intelligence official said.

Videotapes of movies and TV soap operas, CDs, and other materials enter the North via northeast China, where the allure of South Korean entertainers can be traced to a larger phenomenon known as the "Korean Wave," a term coined a few years ago by Beijing journalists startled at the growing popularity of South Koreans and South Korean goods in China.

According to a survey conducted among North Koreans who recently defected to the South, North Koreans obtain South Korean videos and CDs via China.

Relatively wealthy North Koreans with TVs, video players or personal computers at home watch them, and then swap the programs among peers or friends. Mobile phones using pre-paid cards have also been smuggled in from China, according to the sources.

South Korean officials said the spread of South Korean pop culture could cause a major crack in the North's closed society, which officially holds that South Koreans live in poverty and despair.

North Korea has systematically filtered outside information that could damage the decades-long cult worship for its leadership that has stayed afloat despite the global collapse of communism.

The North recently scrapped its decades-long visa waiver for Chinese visitors, apparently fearing that an increased number of travelers would prompt leaks of information into and out from the country.

The North's leadership has long called for the establishment of "mosquito nets" to prevent influx of capitalist culture and has warned its people against the "Trojan horse" of capitalism.

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