Resources to Learn More About the DPRK (aka North Korea)
The History of the United States Involvement in Korea
- Following World War 2, the USA divided the Korean Peninsula in half and assumed militarized control over the south against the people’s wishes.
- The USA brutally repressed the people in South Korea, including backing the genocide of Jeju Island, because they were politically too left-wing and did not approve of our presence there.
- Meanwhile in the north, the Korean people were allowed to establish their own government and lead as they wished, but were forced to watch in horror as their family members in the south were terrorized.
- When the north attempted to expel the brutal occupying military forces of the USA from the south and reunify their country, as both the north and the south wanted, the Korean War began. The USA responded by murdering 20-25% of the entire population of the north and destroying 80% of their infrastructure, all for simply wanting us to stop committing genocide in the south and leave the Korean people alone.
The Defector Industrial Complex & Propaganda
- The Korean War never officially ended, and today the USA still runs militarized operations against North Korea.
- To this day, the South Korean military is still under U.S. command, and the south Korean government acts as our puppet ally in our war against the north, often attempting to provoke them.
- Today, the US government and its allies run a massive propaganda network spreading false information about the tiny country.
- As part of our hybrid warfare strategy against them, the USA maintains a network of massive disinformation and paid propaganda to make our political enemies in the North seem cartoonishly evil in order to retroactively justify the cruelty we enacted against them, including paying people from the North to tell sensational and untrue stories about their experiences for eager western audiences.
- In South Korea, it is illegal to say anything positive about the north and massive internet censorship prohibits people from hearing any true stories about North Korea that do not fit in with the U.S.-backed agenda.
Untrustworthy Sources
- The propaganda network churning out disinformation about North Korea is massive, and the most commonly cited sources are funded directly by US congress, our state department, or a US NGO started by the CIA called the National Endowment for Democracy. Below is a list of sources that are unreliable.
- Founded as a memorial to the Marshall Plan assistance through a grant from the West German government via US government funding
- NK News is owned by an American company that is registered in the tax haven of Delaware and operates out of South Korea
- Director at NK News (see above)
- Cites Andrei Lankov 27 times (see above)
- Cites NKNews 4 times (see above)
- Cites Daily NK 12 times (see above)
- Cites 38 North 1 time (see above)
- Cites Radio Free Asia 3 times (see above)
- Cites NKNews (see above)
- Cites Daily NK (see above)
- Cites Radio Free Asia (see above)
What is North Korea Really Like?
- North Korea has long stood with Black Americans in their struggle for liberation.
- North Korea has also always been an ally of Palestine
- North Korea additionally stood with Burkina Faso and Thomas Sankara
- North Korea is not a dictatorship, but instead has a triumvirate elected leadership with a fully elected parliament consisting of three different political parties.
- Flowchart of DPRK Worker’s Party vs Government
- 1993 Record of The Parliamentary System of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- Despite having a reputation for being a single party state, the DPRK parliament is currently made up of 3 different parties. Candidates are selected based on a consensus model at a local level, then officially confirmed or denied at election time.
- North Korea has a collective leadership system consisting of three branches of government: the assembly, the executive branch called the cabinet, and the equivalent of their State Department called the State Affairs Commission.
- Kim Jong Un’s role today is as head of their state department, a job his father had but not the same job his grandfather originally had. His grandfather was the first Premier of North Korea, or the head of their executive branch like the U.S. president is today, a position currently held by a man named Pak Thae Song. Kim Jong Un is also head of the largest political party in North Korea, but their party system is not oppositional, meaning people can be and often are in multiple parties. The workers party is the largest because most people have jobs and are therefore workers. The party does not have governmental legislative control, just like political parties in the USA do not have governmental control, though members of the parties serve in government roles.
- Supreme leader is not a government job title, but instead is a cultural honorary (a bit like “founding father” here in the USA) bestowed on people in North Korea by the media.
- North Korea is still a nation at war, and as such has more tight control over its borders. It also struggles greatly with the American blockade against them. However, despite that, it is still a relatively normal place and not the comedically evil country depicted in most western media.
- Despite giving the DPRK a reputation for rampant incarceration, the American government estimates the prison population of the DPRK to be between 80,000 - 200,000 out of a population of 26 million – amounting to 0.3-0.7%. The incarcerated population in the United States is 0.7% of the total population, meaning the DPRK’s is the same or (more likely) far less than the USA. “Labour camps” are just what we call their prisons, and you can be forced to do labor in American prisons, too.
- The famine of the 1990s was caused by back to back floods described by onlookers as being of biblical proportions. It was catastrophic for the North which, during the divide, was not left with the most productive farmland. They begged the Americans to lift the embargo so they could import food. Our government responded by debating in Congress whether or not we should just “starve them out”.
- Thankfully North Korea does not experience food insecurity on that level today. However, any food insecurity they do experience is the direct result of US-driven UN sanctions against them.
- People from North Korea can and do leave the country. An average of 200,000 visit China every year alone. However, their passport internationally is considered very weak due to the blockade against them, meaning other countries won’t accept it or will only accept it with massive restrictions. They can only travel to other countries who welcome a North Korean passport. And no, they do not shoot you if you try to leave. The sensational case we’ve heard of this was one man named Oh Chong Song who was in the middle of a pursuit with authorities after having murdered someone. North Koreans travel places like China and Russia, but as their passports are not very strong they do not have a developed culture of international travel and often vacation domestically.
- North Korea does have regulations about some foreign media, not allowing in propaganda that might destabilize their country. However, they do still have access to foreign media, contrary to popular belief, and there are not harsh penalties for watching it like some people claim.
SPECIAL SECTION: DannyNorthKorea’s Source Analysis
A guide to understanding Danny North Korea’s resources (@NorthKoreaEdu on TikTok/YouTube/Instagram/X) – all largely from the same network of disinformation listed above
KEY
- RED: US GOVERNMENT FUNDED SOURCES
- ORANGE: SOUTH KOREA AFFILIATED (IT IS ILLEGAL TO SAY ANYTHING POSITIVE ABOUT NORTH KOREA IN THE SOUTH SO THESE ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY)
- BLUE: UNRELIABLE NARRATION (PAID DEFECTORS, UNCONFIRMED STORIES, ETC.)
- PURPLE: UNSPECIFIED (NO DIRECT SOURCE AVAILABLE TO VET)
News/Analysis Sites:
Tools:
- X KCNA Watch - Compiles and posts all of North Korea’s state media’s news articles and news broadcasts FUNDED BY STATE DEPARTMENT
- X 38 North Digital Atlas - Detailed map of North Korea FUNDED BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Human Rights Organizations:
Think Tanks:
Books:
Other Literature:
Interesting Articles:
Remaining sources: