Childhood dreams, education and loyalty in North Korea. A look at how North Korean propaganda works, through the Icons of Rhetoric media-literary project. (original) (raw)
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Korean names and terms in this text were Romanized according to the McCune-Reischauer system except for those that are widely used internationally (Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang, etc.). The names of the authors listed in the References are written in the way they were spelt in their original works.
Reality Effects for a Dangerous Age: Projecting North Korean Youth on the International Screen
Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context, 2020
Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context 13.2 (2020): 69-95 In an effort to reshape its international reputation, North Korea has in recent years sought to market abroad a run of documentaries and dramas featuring students and children. This essay explores the ways in which North Korean and international commentators have argued that the films in question reflect one or another reality. For the North Korean commentators, the works encapsulate life in the son'gun or "military-first" era instituted by Kim Jong-il in the late 1990s. For the international commentators, they provide a platform on which the North Korean youth reveal themselves as not wholly supportive of the system under which they are made to live. While the films have in each case been pressed into the service of an operative politics of truth, attention to their profound ambiguity unsettles the assumption that the reality of life in North Korea can invariably be reduced to a dichotomy between the suppressed citizenry and the totalitarian state.
Language and Truth in North Korea
deserve, even after having written and published multiple volumes. Although writing itself can be a burden, the opportunity that it provides me, as an author, to express myself-and not simply my mental contemplations, but the material part of me as well-is a privilege that is, in my view, unsur passed by anything else, save for motherhood. For this book, I am once again haunted by the familiar question of whether or not I have put all of my soul into its creation. As with all of the other books that I have written, there are many individ uals who have helped me in my journey and many entities that facilitated my research. First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks to the National Science Foundation for granting me the Senior Research Grant (ID#BCS 1504957), which provided me with encouragement as well as the material basis for the research for this book. Jeffrey Mantz, the Program Director for Anthropology, with his trust in my scholarship, played a pivotal role in the conception as well as the completion of this project. I am forever indebted to Jeff. As part of the research toward this book, I met a number of former defec tors from North Korea. Although I will not name these individuals, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to them here for the insights that they shared with me. An NGO involved in refugee support in North America (which I will also opt not to name) helped me to meet with the defectors and played a key role in facilitating this endeavor. I am truly grateful for its help. Preliminary thoughts on this book were shared with colleagues in Rice University's Department of Anthropology in 2016 when I gave a talk there. Faculty and students who were present gave me invaluable insights and posed thought-provoking questions. I am very grateful for that occasion. In 2018, Todd Henry invited me to the Transnational Korean Studies seminar at the University of California, San Diego, where I had the opportunity to pres ent an early version of the content of chapter 1 of this book. The questions that I was asked and the comments that I received from faculty and students vii viii Acknowledgments LANGUAGE AND TRUTH IN NORTH KOREA Truth 15 and a native reader, having been brought up in the North Korean community in Japan (Ryang 1997; Ryang 2008). I am not saying this because Korean is my native language, but instead because of my firsthand familiarity with North Korean publications, proficient knowledge of which I was made to acquire throughout my formative years in Japan (see chapter 4 of this volume). Language as Formula Before leading the reader through a chapter-by-chapter plan of this book, I would like to briefly touch upon what kind of language practice we are deal ing with when we discuss the linguistic institutions of North Korea and the relationship between language and truth in North Korea. When the language is as formulaic as that used in North Korea's official discourse, it hides many things in broad daylight, making it difficult to see how it works. Let us take a look at the following example, a short article published by the news organ of the Workers' Party of Korea, Rodongsinmun, on June 22, 2018, under the title "Youth and Students Vow to Be Loyal to Kim Jong Un": A national meeting of youth and students was held on the top of Mt. Paektu [Baekdu] on Wednesday to vow to steadily carry on the march started on Mt. Paektu [Baekdu] under the guidance of the respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Led by Pak Chol Min, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League, the participants expressed their resolve to more firmly prepare themselves to be persons strong in idea and faith armed with the revolutionary spirit of Paektu [Baekdu], the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu [Baekdu], and the principle of giving priority to selfdevelopment [.. .] for accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche. They stressed the need to hold President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal sun of Juche for all ages and resolutely defend and forever glorify the revolutionary idea and leadership exploits of the peerlessly great men. They also vowed to absolutely believe in and follow Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and become manifold fortresses and shields devotedly defend ing the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee.
True Believers: Conversations with North Koreans
Purpose—To argue that North Korean elites are “true believers” in the Kim personality cult. To present the possibilities for and limitations on using travel to North Korea as a research tool for North Korean scholars. Design/methodology/approach—I used a tourist trip to North Korea as an opportunity to probe and discuss sensitive subjects with my North Korean guides. I tried to gauge their level of belief in the regime’s propaganda. Findings—It is likely that many North Korean elites are “true believers” in the Kim regime, even though they may entertain doubts about some of its methods. Practical implications—The underlying stability of North Korea may be stronger than most would suspect or hope. Originality/value—This essay makes use of unconventional research methods and primary sources. Hopefully it will encourage other scholars to consider the research potentials of traveling to North Korea.
The Journal of Asian Studies, 2013
A s the title Reading North Korea implies, Sonia Ryang invites readers to approach North Korea as if it were a text. Yet, as Ryang boldly posits, less effort has been made to recognize North Korea as a land of human beings, and more effort has been made to advocate for, accuse, or ridicule the country (4). Anthropologists, in general, pride themselves on their scientific and ethical commitment to years of ethnographic fieldwork in order to interpret societies and people from a native viewpoint. Therefore, why not direct these approaches toward North Korea? It is in this sense that Ryang calls for general readers, anthropological scholars, and students in particular to humanize or, in the author's term, (re)anthropologize "the faceless Koreans" (8) by employing ethnological approaches, just as Ruth Benedict did among the Japanese during World War II. The purpose of the book is to comprehend North Korean "cultural logic, structure, and the operative mode of everyday life" (3). Ryang's methods include reading and analyzing select novels and films that develop the themes of love, war, and a sense of self that, she suggests, ground North Korean human relations. The book consists of five interconnected chapters that develop the project of humanizing what is often infamously described as the world's most isolated country. In the introduction, "A Journey into the Abyss," Ryang stresses how her stance diverges from existing popular opinions that figure North Korea as either a neo-Confucian or a guerilla state (cf.
Hyper-Stalinism: Modern North Korea
This draft essay looks at the growth of the cult of personality that has existed around the Kim family since at least the 1960s, the use of propaganda by the North Korean state, its relations with the United States and South Korea, and the lives of people within North Korea as can best be understood. The Kim regime uses what I have called 'Hyper-Stalinism' to maintain its control of power. Thus, this small and extremely impoverished country spends vast sums of money on its military readiness and the construction and upkeep of mausoleums to its deceased leaders. Moreover, those close to the current regime clearly enjoy a lifestyle that is unobtainable to ordinary citizens, many of whom toil in fields or factories for long hours and whose lives have changed little since the Kim dynasty gained power in 1945. This links to a wider point about the organisation of the political establishment in any given society. This essay will hopefully unpack some of the motives behind these policies.