North Korea’s propaganda strategy

The internationally isolated regime of the Democratic Popular Republic of Korea (or North Korea) needs to build consensus around the idea that, under the direction of a young dynamic leader, the nation's living standards have improved amidst vivid economic and technological growth. North Koreans are often forced to contribute their free labour to campaigns, as a way to attest their devotion to the nation and help make it stronger in the face of its external enemies.

Kim Jong Un's coming to power has helped modernise the image of the North Korean leadership. His sister, Kim Yo Jong, has been put in charge of Pyongyang's Propaganda and Agitation Department. The regime is building a nationalistic narrative that increasingly targets young people and elites while keeping information under strict control, in a country whose population is today less inclined to believe in propaganda than in the past.

The USA, South Korea, and occasionally Japan, are the targets of bellicose North Korean rhetoric that has often had a destabilising effect on the region. Anti-US propaganda has been a primary theme in Pyongyang's efforts to boost patriotic feeling, while the duel with Seoul often resembles old-fashioned psychological warfare.

Author: Enrico D’Ambrogio