April 25, 2024
Evergreen

Unconverted political prisoners, and inter-Korean romance, in DPRK fiction

Stories based (very) loosely on the real-life repatriations of prisoners from South to North became popular in the 2000s

In North Korea in the early 2000s, there was an upsurge in interest in art about South Korea. This was inspired by the rapprochement of the two Koreas, brought about by the Southern-initiated Sunshine Policy.

A popular theme was the repatriation from the South to the North of 63 unconverted North Korean prisoners and spies, which began in 2000 under the initiative of the Kim Dae-jung administration.

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