Welcome to Rogue State TV! As North Korea reveals plans £16-a-month Netflix-style streaming service, here's what viewers can expect, including a soap called 'Our Neighbours', Looney Tunes-inspired cartoons and yes, plenty of propaganda

South Korean popular culture has become a global phenomenon in recent decades, with K-Pop bands - including Black Pink and BTS - topping global charts. 

K-dramas - South Korean TV series - have also proved hugely popular with Western audiences...and it seems, from across the DMZ that divides the two countries, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might now be looking for a piece of the television pie. 

It was revealed yesterday that North Korea is poised to launch a new streaming service that will air the cream of its film, television and news content to audiences across the world. 

Polish-run Shiwani TV is expected to launch this autumn and will livestream state-run Korean Central Television and its affiliated radio station, The Telegraph reported yesterday.

Polish-run Shiwani TV is expected to launch this autumn and will livestream Korean Central Television and its affiliated radio station, The Telegraph reported yesterday (Pictured: Kim Jong-un in 2023)

The deal is likely to give curious Westerners further insight into life inside North Korea

According to the small Warsaw-based organisation behind the deal, Chollima Front, registration has been steady so far, with less than a hundred people signed up in countries that include the US, Poland, Japan and South Korea.

So, what can viewers willing to part with £16 per month - £9 more than the most basic Netflix package - expect from the newest platform on the block? 

The answer is a host of North Korean soap operas, dramas, sitcoms and cartoons. Can you guess the catch? Weaved into the schedules will be anti-West sentiment galore and plenty of propaganda about King Jong-un himself. 

Viewers can binge-watch the North Korean equivalent of box-sets but will also have to endure military parades, missile launches and hours and hours of footage from despot-devoted newsreaders - par for the course when you're subscribing to Rogue State TV. 

Here, FEMAIL picks out some of the highlights subscribers might expect to see on Shiwani TV:  

LONG-RUNNING SOAP OUR NEIGHBOURS 

Long-running soap opera Our Neighbours looks set to be a staple on Shiwani TV; the programme is set around a posh neighbourhood in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang

Ramsay Street in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang? Not quite but Our Neighbours, a sitcom that takes place in a fancy city apartment is likely to be one of the shows that almost certainly features when Shiwani TV goes global in the autumn. 

Set in the upmarket Changjon Street neighborhood, the action focuses on a set of residents who appear to be doing rather well for themselves. 

A Washington Post article on one episode back in 2017 noted that the apartment's lift - still a novelty for most North Koreans - featured heavily in the script. 

OUTLAW STATE'S FAVOURITE NEWS PRESENTER  

Now 80, veteran North Korean news presenter Ri Chun-Hee still anchors major news stories - because she's such a well-known figure

When Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un famously met in 2018, it was Ri Chun-Hee who was trusted with the delivery the news report to the North Korean people 

Like our own rolling news channels, North Korea has its own version, although impartiality is nowhere to be seen. 

The channel will offer newscasts from veteran anchor Ri Chun-Hee, known for her passionate and emotional commentary on Korean Central Television (KCT). 

Now 80, the broadcaster officially retired in 2012, focusing on training up and coming broadcasters instead, but is still trusted with major developments in North Korean news thanks to her high profile. 

In 2016, she announced that the country had detonated a H-bomb, and was on hand to recount Kim Jong-un's meeting with Donald Trump in 2018. 

NORTH KOREAN CINEMA - INCLUDING ROM-COMS 

The eighties saw North Korean films take a romantic turn with films such as Broad Bellflower amongst those that could air in the autumn on the new streaming service

Kim Jong-un's father Kim Jong Il was well known for his love of film. 

The late dictator believed it was the most powerful tool for educating the masses and as such the country is now littered with movie theatres and cinema-going is free.

He is said to have had thousands of films in his personal library and seven theatres built just for him Pyongyang.

The country's main studio, Korean Film Studio, has produced dozens of films - mostly with communist and revolutionary themes.

There is the odd rom-com equivalent though, with the eighties proving a particularly fertile period, with films such as Traces of Life (1989), Broad Bellflower (1987) and Girls from My Hometown (1991) hitting cinema screens. 

ANIMATION INSPIRED BY LOONEY TUNES

The platform will offer viewers access to North Korea's best soap operas, dramas, sitcoms, demented cartoons (pictured) and anti-West propaganda for just £16 per month

Tom and Jerry North Korean style? Cartoons made by animation house SEK could feature

The outlaw country has a long-held passion for animation, with cartoons likely to form a portion of the streamed content.

Former leader Kim Jong-il was reportedly a fan of Looney Tunes character Daffy Duck and many of the cartoons aired are made by animation house SEK. 

The zany Looney Tunes vibes certainly seem to have rippled into North Korean animation, with the action slapstick and high-octane.   

They also stay on message, a 1970s cartoon that remains popular, Squirrel and Hedgehog, sees animals in North Korea portrayed as cute and brave, while their enemies - foxes, wolves and weasels - live across the DMZ in South Korea.   

GLOBAL SPORTS EVENTS - LONG AFTER THEY'VE AIRED 

Major sports events will air on Shiwani TV...but long after they've actually happened

Catching up on global sporting news is also a possibility for subscribers of Shiwani TV, although if Andy Murray proves victorious on his singles swansong this year, it's unlikely you'll see it on the North Korean streaming service until months later - and then only with heavily censored footage appearing. 

PROPAGANDA TV: MISSILE LAUNCHES, PARADES AND KIM JONG-UN GOSSIP 

North Korea is set to launch Shiwani TV, a new streaming service that will air Kim Jong Un's state television across the globe, by autumn this year. The North Korean dictator (centre) is pictured in a Korean Central Television braodcast

A glimpse into North Korean life: The missile launches that North Korea regularly carries out already makes national news across the demilitarized zone in Seoul, South Korea (pictured) and are likely to feature heavily on Shiwani TV

Offerings include soap operas detailing the tales of heroic soldiers and workers devoted to communist party (pictured)

Subscribers will be able to binge the state-run TV Korean Central Television, which shows a steady stream of missiles,  highlights reports from despot-devoted newsreaders and broadcasts military parades (pictured)

 Subscribers will have access to a variety of state-approved programmes, which typically promote communist party propaganda

Plenty of viewers signing up to the streaming service will do so for insight into a country that is famous for censoring.

It's no surprise that Shiwani TV will be forced to dedicate much of its content to the image of Kim Jong-Un with the military parades and missile launches that already dominate TV schedules in the country featuring heavily. 

The Telegraph reports too that there will be an accompanying app for subscribers who'll be able to get the latest news on the life and work of Kim Jong-un as it happens. 

What's already clear is that key messages from the regime, that hard work and devotion to the supreme leader, will run through every genre that appears on the channel.