June 03, 2023
Analysis

The clumsy propaganda of North Korean radio plays

Radio networks launched under Kim Jong Un try to win hearts and minds of South Koreans but are often comically inept

South Korea has firmly established itself as the wealthier and more powerful of the two Koreas, in particular since the end of the Cold War brought economic ruin and widespread famine to North Korea. But this has not stopped Pyongyang propagandists from looking for ways to influence their neighbors.

Early propaganda films such as 1974’s “The Fate of Keum-hee and Eun-hee” attempted to contrast the materially prosperous North with the poor, backward South, though that particular front on the ideological battlefield has long been lost.