How North Korean propaganda remembers the genocide of Native Americans

Analysis

How North Korean propaganda remembers the genocide of Native Americans

Kim regime holds up America’s sins to paint US as incorrigible colonizer and deflect from its own human rights abuses

Benjamin R. Young May 1, 2023

How North Korean propaganda remembers the genocide of Native Americans

A painting depicting U.S. calvary troops chasing Native Americans | Image: Werner Company via Wikimedia Commons

North Korea’s conception of human rights is fundamentally different from the U.S. and the West. For the Kim regime, human rights means the protection of national sovereignty and independence. It wholly rejects the notion of inalienable rights and freedoms premised on the individual.

One of the standard tropes within North Korea’s human rights discourse is the DPRK government’s indictment of the historically poor treatment of minority non-white populations in the U.S. This is meant to expose double-sidedness regarding its promotion of human rights abroad.

About the Author

Benjamin R. Young

Benjamin R. Young is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). He is the author of Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World (Stanford University Press, 2021). He received his Ph.D. from The George Washington University in 2018. He has previously taught at the U.S. Naval War College and Dakota State University. He has published peer-reviewed articles on North Korean history and politics in a number of scholarly journals and is a regular contributor to NK News.

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