Propaganda in North Korea

The traditional view of "Propaganda in North Korea" is that it is extensively based on the Juche ideology to promote the Workers' Party of Korea line. The pictures of leaders are posted everywhere.

Brian Reynolds Myers in The Cleanest Race is dismissive of the idea that juche is North Korea's leading ideology, regarding its public exaltation as designed to deceive foreigners. Myers points out that North Korea's latest constitution, of 2009, omits all mention of communism.

Based on a study of the propaganda produced in North Korea for internal consumption, Myers argues that the guiding ideology of North Korea is a race-based Korean nationalism in the mold of Japanese fascism rather than any form of Communism.

Themes

Cult of personality

Main article: North Korea's cult of personality

A mural of Kim Il-sung outside a North Korean hotel.

In previous decades, North Korean propaganda was crucial to the formation and promotion of the cult of personality centered around the founder of the totalitarian state, Kim Il-sung. The Soviet Union began to develop him, particularly as a resistance fighter, as soon as they put him in power. This quickly surpassed its Eastern European models. Instead of depicting his actual residence in a Soviet village during the war with the Japanese, he was claimed to have fought a guerilla war from a secret base.

Once relations with the Soviet Union were broken off, their role was expurgated, as were all other nationalists, until the claim was made that he founded the Communist Party in North Korea. He is seldom shown in action during the Korean War, which, if it was presented as a glorious victory, nevertheless devastated the country; instead, soldiers are depicted as inspired by him. Subsequently, many stories are recounted of his "on-the-spot" guidance in various locations, many of them being openly presented as fictional.

This was supplemented with propaganda on behalf of his son, Kim Jong-il. The "food shortage" produced anecdotes of Kim insisting on eating the same meager food as other North Koreans.

Propaganda efforts began for the "Young General", Kim Jong-un, who succeeded him as paramount leader of North Korea on Kim Jong-Il's death in December 2011.

Foreign relations

Early propaganda, in 1940s, presented a positive Soviet–Korean relationship, often depicting Russians as maternal figures to childlike Koreans. As soon as relations were less cordial, they were expurgated from historical accounts. The collapse of the USSR, without a shot, is often depicted with intense contempt in sources not accessible to Russians.

Americans are depicted particularly negatively. They are presented as an inherently evil race, with whom hostility is the only possible relationship. The Korean War is used as a source for atrocities, less for the bombing raids than on charges of massacre.

Japan is frequently depicted in colonial era as rapacious and dangerous.

Friendly nations are depicted almost exclusively as tributary nations. The English journalist Christopher Hitchens pointed out in the essay A Nation of Racist Dwarfs that propaganda has a blatantly racist and nationalistic angle:

North Korean women who return pregnant from China—the regime's main ally and protector—are forced to submit to abortions. Wall posters and banners depicting all Japanese as barbarians are only equaled by the ways in which Americans are caricatured as hook-nosed monsters.

South Korea

South Korea was originally depicted as a poverty-stricken land, where American soldiers shot Korean children, but by the 1990s, too much information reached North Korea to prevent their learning that South Korea had a higher living standard, and so propaganda admitted it. The line taken was that this had not prevented the South Koreans from yearning for unification and purification.

Racial pride

Further information: The Cleanest Race and Korean ethnic nationalism

North Korean propaganda often invokes Koreans as the purest of races, with a mystical bond with the natural beauty of the landscape. White is often invoked for this purity, as in a painting of the "Homeland Liberation War" (or Korean War) which depicts female partisans washing and hanging out white blouses, despite the way it would have made them visible to attack.

In contrast to Stalinist depictions of people steeling themselves, preparing themselves intellectually, and so growing up and becoming fit to create Communism, the usual image in North Korean literature is of a spontaneous virtue that revolts against intellectualism but naturally does what is right.

Stories often have only mildly flawed Korean characters, who are, of course, easily reformed because of their inherently pure nature; this has resulted in problems with lack of conflict and so dullness.

South Korea is often depicted as a place of dangerous racial contamination.

Military first

Under Kim Jong Il, a major theme has been the need of Kim to attend to the military first of all (in North Korea, this policy is called Sŏn'gun or Songun, 선군정치), which requires other Koreans to do without his close attention. This military life is presented as something that Koreans take spontaneously to, though often disobeying orders from the highest of motives.

Devotion to the state

Romance is often depicted in stories as being triggered solely by the person's model citizenship, as when a beauty is unattractive until a man learns she volunteered to work at a potato farm.

Food shortage

The North Korean famine was admitted within propaganda to be solely a "food shortage", ascribed to bad weather and failure to implement Kim's teachings, but unquestionably better than situations outside North Korea.

The government urged the use of non-nutritious and even harmful "food substitutes" such as sawdust.

Practices

Every year, a state-owned publishing house releases several cartoons (called 그림책, geurim-chaek in North Korea), many of which are smuggled across the Chinese border and, sometimes, end up in university libraries in the United States. The books are designed to instill the Juche philosophy of Kim Il-sung (the “father” of North Korea)—radical self-reliance of the state. The plots mostly feature scheming capitalists from the United States and Japan who create dilemmas for naïve North Korean characters.

The propaganda in North Korea is controlled mainly by the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers Party of Korea.

Posters

Posters depict the correct actions for every part of life, down to appropriate clothing. North Korean Propaganda posters are very similar to the messages portrayed by other communist countries. North Korean propaganda posters focus on military might, Utopian society and devotion to the state, and the leader’s personality. Propaganda posters are also used to depict the opposite of what is really happening in the country to the outside world. Kim Jung Il is credited with using propaganda art and posters to make the Kim family’s identity inseparable from the state.

Art

Fine art often depicts militaristic themes.

The Flower Girl, a revolutionary opera allegedly penned by Kim Il-Sung himself, was turned into a movie, the most popular one in North Korea. It depicts its heroine's sufferings in the colonial era until her partisan brother returns to exact vengeance on their oppressive landlord, at which point she pledges support for the revolution. Art is based on Socialist Realism, which is the official school of artistic expression and was designed for propaganda purposes to begin with (at odds with Marx, Engels and even Trotsky's own liberal views on art and culture).

Music

The country's supreme leaders have had hymns dedicated to them that served as their signature tune and were repetitively broadcast by the state media:

• "Song of General Kim Il-sung" (for Kim Il-sung)
• "Song of General Kim Jong-il" and "No Motherland Without You" (for Kim Jong-il)
• "Footsteps" and "Onwards Toward the Final Victory" (for Kim Jong-un)

Film

The Korean government also runs a film industry that promotes movies depicting the glory of North Korean life, and the atrocities of Western Imperialism. The film industry is ran through Pyongyang University of Cinematic and Dramatic Arts. Kim Jong-Il was a self-proclaimed genius of film. He was rumored to own over 20,000 DVDs in his personal collection. Kim believed that Cinema was the most important of the arts. Domestically, these films are given lavish receptions. International critics cite the films as propaganda, because of their unreal depictions of North Korea. The key role for North Korean films is to provide on-screen role models for the mass. Recently, there has been an increase in animated films. The animated films carry political and military messages aimed at the youth of North Korea.

Leaflets

The North Korean government is known for dropping Propaganda leaflets to South Korean soldiers, just across the Demilitarized Zone. The leaflets are dropped across in a floating balloon. The leaflets criticize the South Korean government and praise North Korea.

Social media

In 2010, North Korea started to make its first entry into the social media market launching its own website, Facebook page, YouTube Channel, Twitter account, and Flickr page. The profile picture of all social media accounts is the Three Charters for National Reunification Memorial Tower, a 100-foot (30-meter) monument in Pyongyang that "reflects the strong will of the 70 million Korean people to achieve the reunification of the country with their concerted effort", according to the official Korean Central News Agency. In April 2013, online activist group Anonymous hacked into North Korea's social media accounts.

Uriminzokkiri

Uriminzokkiri is a website that provides Korean language news and propaganda from North Korea's central news agency. The website offers translation in Korean, Russian, and English. Uriminzokkiri means on our own as our nation. The site includes articles entitled, “South Korea’s Pro-US/Japan Corporate Media: Endless Demonization Campaigns Against DPRK”, “The Project For New American Century: The New World Order & The US’s Continued CRIMES”, and “Kim Jong Un Sends Musical Instruments to Children's Palaces”. The website also contains a page for tv.urminzokirri. This page contains videos showing news clips criticizing imperialist movements, clips showing the bravery of Korean people, and the power of its military.

Facebook

The North Korean Facebook account appeared a week after the South Korean government blocked the North Korean Twitter account. The Facebook account is named Uriminzoki, and describes itself as male looking for men and interested in networking. The page representing "the intentions of North and South Koreas and compatriots abroad, who wish for peace, prosperity, and unification of our homeland".

There were over 50 posts on Uriminzokkiri's wall, including links to reports that criticize South Korea and the U.S. as "warmongers", photos of picturesque North Korean landscapes, and a YouTube video of a dance performance celebrating leader Kim Jong Il, "guardian of the homeland and creator of happiness".

YouTube

The channel named Uriminzokkiri has uploaded almost 5,000 videos, including clips that condemn and mock South Korea and the U.S. for blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March 2010. Uriminzok means our nation. The account has posted videos dubbing United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a "Maniac in a Skirt". The account has over 3,000 subscribers and over 3.3 million views as of November 28, 2012. On February 5, 2013, a propaganda film that featured New York in flames was taken down by Activision due to it using footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Twitter

The government's official Twitter account is also named Uriminzok. As of November 28, 2012, the account has almost 11,000 followers, and has sent out almost 5,000 tweets. In January 2011, the Korean language account was hacked, and featured messages calling for North Korean citizens to start an uprising. It gained 8,500 of its followers in the first week. In April 2013, the country's Twitter account was hacked by Anonymous.

Flickr

The Flickr account, started in August 2010, includes many pictures of Kim Jong-un receiving applause from the military. Pictures also show children eating and in school enjoying life. The pictures also showcasing booming agriculture and modern city life. In April 2013, the Flickr account was hacked by the online group Anonymous. As of April 2013, the Flickr account is deactivated.

Propaganda village

Main article: Kijŏng-dong

Kijŏngdong, Kijŏng-dong or Kijŏng tong is a village in P'yŏnghwa-ri (Chosŏn'gŭl: 평화리; Hancha: 平和里), Kaesong-si, North Korea. It is situated in the North's half of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Also known in North Korea as Peace Village (Chosŏn'gŭl: 평화촌; Hancha: 平和村; MR: p'yŏnghwach'on).

The official position of the North Korean government is that the village contains a 200-family collective farm, serviced by a childcare center, kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, and a hospital. However, observation from the South suggests that the town is actually an uninhabited Potemkin village built at great expense in the 1950s in a propaganda effort to encourage South Korean defection and to house the DPRK soldiers manning the extensive network of artillery positions, fortifications and underground marshalling bunkers that abut the border zone.

See also

• Voice of Korea
• Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle
• Propaganda in South Korea
• Propaganda in the Soviet Union
• Propaganda in the People's Republic of China
• Socialist realism

Other:

• Phrases of North Korean Rhetoric
• Media of North Korea
• Telecommunications in North Korea
• Communist propaganda

Censorship:

• Radio jamming in Korea
• Censorship in North Korea

References

• Myers, B. R. (2010). The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters. Melville House. ISBN 978-1-933633-91-6. 

Further reading

• Portal, Jane (2005). Art Under Control in North Korea. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-236-2. 

External links

• DPRK Propaganda Picture Gallery