Research page:North Korea

External links

Books

Architecture and urbanism in North Korea This website gives excerpts from a new book about architecture in North Korea and its role as a propaganda tool.

Dated news articles

North Korea's 'organizational life' in decline By Andrei Lankov, May 23, 2012. See summary of the article.^[1]
Pyongyang paints history in its own image By Andrei Lankov, May 11, 2012. See quotes from the article.^[2]
North Korea redefines 'minimum' wage By Andrei Lankov, April 25, 2012

Videos

Kim Han-sol interviewed by Elisabeth Rehn (1/2) Info with the video says: "Kim Han-sol interviewed by Elisabeth Rehn for Finnish television. Kim Han-sol is the grandson of Kim Jong-il. He never met his grandfather. At the time of this interview in 2012, he was studying at United World College in Mostar, Bosnia and Hertzegovina. Elisabeth Rehn (b. 1935) was a UN Under-Secretary General and the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995-1999. Before that, she was a member of the Finnish parliament (1979-1995) and Minister of Defence (1990-1995). Rehn helped found the United World College in Mostar." - Published on Oct. 16, 2012
A Forest Is Swaying (1982, English Subtitles) This is a movie made in North Korea. This mix of fairy tale and propaganda is interesting to watch if you want to learn more about how North Korea works. Kim Il Sung is mentioned frequently as 'The President' in bold print, and is presented as the one who inspires great deeds, while the Yankees are blamed for the eroded mountain slopes. The movie ends with tears of gratitude and a hymn of praise for Kim Il Sung when the hero of the movie gets to meet him. (JE)
Inside North Korea - VICE Travel - Part 1 of 3 "Vice founder Shane Smith managed to get into North Korea after a year and half of trying and is witness to the craziness of this hermit nation." - Published on Dec 19, 2011
YouTube site with links to North Korean movies, some of them with English subtitles

References

↑ The 'organizational life' in North Korea is seemingly on the decline, but according to Lankov a majority of North Koreans are still taken care of by organizational supervisors.
What is this organizational life in North Korea? Every single North Korean must belong to a cell of one organization, and this cell tries to control and correct his/her behavior. There are five such organizations in the North, with mutually exclusive membership - the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), the Youth Union, the Trade Union, the Farmers Union and the Women's Union.
Typically, every organization holds three meetings every week, each one lasting between one and two hours. Two of the three weekly meetings are indoctrination sessions. Their participants are lectured about the greatness of the Kim family, etc.
Propaganda messages are supposed to be memorized and tests are occasionally held. Remarkable are the so-called"self- and mutual criticism sessions". In most cases, such sessions are usually held on a weekly basis.
Lankov: "During a criticism session, every member of an organization - in other words, every adult North Korean - is supposed to deliver something akin to public penitence and confession. He or she must admit some improper acts that he or she committed in the previous week. Serious deviations are seldom admitted and discussed; people usually limit themselves to relatively trivial matters like, say, being a few minutes late for a job or not taking proper care when cleaning the shop floor. Every act of public confession should be accompanied by a proper quote from Kim Il-sung (leader from 1948 to 1994) or his son Kim Jong-ll (leader from 1994 until his death in 2011). Then a repentant sinner must be criticized by another member of the same organization. Usually both confession and criticism are kept short, taking hardly more than a minute or two per person."
↑ - A quick look at North Korean history textbooks immediately demonstrates that history as presented to North Korean audiences is dramatically different from the history studied outside the reach of juche (self-reliance) ideologues and their police enforcers. Many important facts are omitted from the North Korean versions of national history, while many "facts" are invented or grossly blown out of proportion to push audiences toward the politically proscribed conclusions.
First, North Korean ideologues want their readers to believe that Korean history is more "ancient" than the history of nearly all other societies. Second, they want to play down or deny foreign influences on Korean history and culture or present such influences as inherently evil. Third, they want to demonstrate that it was the northern half of the Korean Peninsula that always played the decisive role in shaping Korean history.
- North Korea's official historians do not want to admit that the ancestors of the present-day population may have come to Korea from elsewhere.
- Another important taboo is the idea that the Korean language might have common origins with any other language of the world - especially Japanese.
- North Korean archeologists discovered (or rather invented) the "Taedong River culture" that is claimed to be one of the world's most advanced cultures, in the third millennia BC. The Korean Peninsula - or, to be more precise, the Pyongyang region - has therefore become one of the world's five cradles of civilization (the other four being Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China).
- Koguryo is presented as the most authentic, and so to say, most Korean of all ancient Korean kingdoms, far superior to the two other states - Paekje and Silla... Koguryo is presented as the direct predecessor of the North Korea of today.

[1] The 'organizational life' in North Korea is seemingly on the decline, but according to Lankov a majority of North Koreans are still taken care of by organizational supervisors.
What is this organizational life in North Korea? Every single North Korean must belong to a cell of one organization, and this cell tries to control and correct his/her behavior. There are five such organizations in the North, with mutually exclusive membership - the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), the Youth Union, the Trade Union, the Farmers Union and the Women's Union.
Typically, every organization holds three meetings every week, each one lasting between one and two hours. Two of the three weekly meetings are indoctrination sessions. Their participants are lectured about the greatness of the Kim family, etc.
Propaganda messages are supposed to be memorized and tests are occasionally held. Remarkable are the so-called"self- and mutual criticism sessions". In most cases, such sessions are usually held on a weekly basis.
Lankov: "During a criticism session, every member of an organization - in other words, every adult North Korean - is supposed to deliver something akin to public penitence and confession. He or she must admit some improper acts that he or she committed in the previous week. Serious deviations are seldom admitted and discussed; people usually limit themselves to relatively trivial matters like, say, being a few minutes late for a job or not taking proper care when cleaning the shop floor. Every act of public confession should be accompanied by a proper quote from Kim Il-sung (leader from 1948 to 1994) or his son Kim Jong-ll (leader from 1994 until his death in 2011). Then a repentant sinner must be criticized by another member of the same organization. Usually both confession and criticism are kept short, taking hardly more than a minute or two per person."

[2] - A quick look at North Korean history textbooks immediately demonstrates that history as presented to North Korean audiences is dramatically different from the history studied outside the reach of juche (self-reliance) ideologues and their police enforcers. Many important facts are omitted from the North Korean versions of national history, while many "facts" are invented or grossly blown out of proportion to push audiences toward the politically proscribed conclusions.
First, North Korean ideologues want their readers to believe that Korean history is more "ancient" than the history of nearly all other societies. Second, they want to play down or deny foreign influences on Korean history and culture or present such influences as inherently evil. Third, they want to demonstrate that it was the northern half of the Korean Peninsula that always played the decisive role in shaping Korean history.
- North Korea's official historians do not want to admit that the ancestors of the present-day population may have come to Korea from elsewhere.
- Another important taboo is the idea that the Korean language might have common origins with any other language of the world - especially Japanese.
- North Korean archeologists discovered (or rather invented) the "Taedong River culture" that is claimed to be one of the world's most advanced cultures, in the third millennia BC. The Korean Peninsula - or, to be more precise, the Pyongyang region - has therefore become one of the world's five cradles of civilization (the other four being Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China).
- Koguryo is presented as the most authentic, and so to say, most Korean of all ancient Korean kingdoms, far superior to the two other states - Paekje and Silla... Koguryo is presented as the direct predecessor of the North Korea of today.

[1]

[2]

Research page:North Korea

Contents

See also

External links

Books

Dated news articles

Videos

References