In 1960s-1980s North Korean mass culture was governed by the concept of North Korea as an already realized “heaven on earth,” with visions of the material prosperity and moral perfection of most citizens. This self-image of the DPRK was close to the concept of communism in Soviet ideology. In the Soviet Union communism was perceived as a reachable but distant ideal, the way to which had to be long and perilous. As a logical outcome of the recognition of imperfection in contemporary Soviet life mass culture always contained an essential dose of heavy social criticism.

North Korean official culture, on