North Korean pop culture has long promoted an image of its citizens as a horde of suicidal fanatics ready to do anything for their leader.  

Songs on military topics carry the telling titles of “Leader, Just Give Us Your Order!” and “Peace is on our Bayonet,” or stanzas such as, “We do not say empty words … ten million of us will become guns and bombs.”

Alongside the straightforward aggressiveness and promises of all-national self-harm, an inseparable feature of North Korean cultural works on military topics has traditionally been their optimistic, positive tone. Songs about the Korean War, which tell