Propaganda in North Korea

The standard view of propaganda in North Korea sees it as based on the Juche ideology and on the promotion of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Many pictures of the national leaders are posted throughout the country.

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.

Early propaganda, in the 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.

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Wikipedia