Military dance video featuring senior civil servants from Yeongju City, Gyeongsangbuk-do, becomes a hot topic on social media

(Yeongju = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Seon-hyung = A promotional video for a unique festival in which high-ranking officials from Yeongju City, Gyeongsangbuk-do appear and perform military dances is gaining attention online.

The video begins with a man wearing a white shirt and tie taking a bite of a root of Punggi ginseng.

As he takes a seat in the middle of the stairs, holding ginseng in his hand, dozens of people dressed in matching black clothes move their bodies in unison to the music. In the back row, there are hand signs lined up that say, ‘If you’re not feeling well, come back with good cheer.’

The man occupying the 'center' in the video is not a professional actor, but Yeongju City Vice Mayor Eom Tae-hyun. Those who perform military duties are also civil servants of Yeongju City Hall level 5 or higher.

According to Yeongju City on the 30th, a 50-second video produced by the city to promote the Punggi Ginseng Festival and the Museom Village Single Tree Bridge Festival is rapidly spreading on social networking services (SNS).

The video recorded 160,000 views on Yeongju City's official Instagram reels in about 16 hours after its release.

It was also viewed over 15,000 times on Yeongju City’s official YouTube channel during the same period.

The video was produced in a way reminiscent of the group dance in 'STORM II' by French music project GENER8ION and Swedish rapper Yung Lean.

Punggi ginseng and festival promotional text were combined with the original production, in which people filling the stairs continue group movements with expressionless faces.

Unlike other local government promotional videos that usually feature young employees, senior public officials, including Vice Mayor Eom, participated in military duties, attracting the attention of netizens.

About 60 officials of Yeongju City level 5 or higher participated in the video recording.

They did not prepare separate costumes for filming.

He stood in front of the camera wearing the black work uniform he usually wears during forest fire emergency work.

Moreover, it was reported that filming was completed without prior practice.

The video idea came from a level 6 employee at the Yeongju City Public Relations Office. The executives readily accepted the proposal.

Immediately after the executive meeting on the morning of the 28th, attendees were informed of the filming and filming began immediately, and the entire filming took about 20 minutes.

Kim Han-deuk, head of Punggi-eup in Yeongju City, said, “The executive meeting was over, but they suddenly asked to go out to film, so I was called out and filmed,” adding, “I didn’t practice at all in advance.”

Comments included, ‘Usually, when it comes to YouTube for public institutions, they forcefully increase tension by replacing young employees, but after watching this video, it seems like they all risked their lives’ and ‘It’s good to see that they didn’t unfairly recruit young employees and recruited at least team leaders. Reactions such as ‘Watch out for your back and spine health’, ‘The odd beat is the key point’, and ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this live’ continued.

The 2026 Yeongju Punggi Ginseng Festival will be held for 9 days from October 3 to 11 in Namwoncheon, Punggi-eup, Yeongju-si, and the Punggi Ginseng Culture Pop-up Park.

This year's festival presents various events and experiential events to promote Punggi ginseng under the slogan 'My strength, my life'.

The 2026 Yeongju Museom Bridge Festival, which opens on the same day, will be held in Museom Village, Munsu-myeon, Yeongju-si for two days, October 3-4.

A variety of programs will be held to promote the traditions and local culture of Yeongju, centered around the single-wood bridge in Museom Village.