Mick Hartley

At NK News, memories of the Soviet Union in its last days, and the role of North Korean magazines in helping to undermine Soviet propaganda: they were so absurdly over-the-top that they read like satire. 

During the 1980s, Soviet citizens grew increasingly irritated with the inefficiency of the Soviet system and lack of access to Western goods. However, after reading two North Korean magazines, Korea and Korea Today, widely available in the Soviet Union, citizens of the first workers’ state knew at least that their situation was better than that of the pitiful North Koreans.

“The absurd social realism of the [Korea] magazine — no longer a feature of Soviet publications in the 1970s and 1980s — made it a cult publication among liberal intellectuals, who saw in Korea the kitsch of Stalinist times, without the pervasive fear of that epoch,” writes Alexander Bratersky of The Moscow Times.

Korea magazine focused more on visuals while Korea Today magazine was highly textual.

“The focus of Korea Today (Korea Segodnya) was on the texts which read like a bizarre mix of blatant propaganda and inappropriate humor. This is what made it almost dissident in its style,” Russian scholar of Korea Leonid Petrov tells NK News.

“Nobody would dare to mock the Soviet system or Communist Party openly, but Korea Today circulated freely and contained absurd texts about socialism, communist leaders and their cult of personality. The texts were a caricature of the communist system, which was out of reach for censors.”

One passage from Korea Today tells the story of Kim Jong Il investigating a local chewing gum factory.

“In Kim’s opinion, gum is a tasty product which provides happiness to everyone and if the laborers of the plant create more products, working for the people, they will be loved by everyone.”

Even to Soviet citizens accustomed to over-the-top communist texts, North Korean propaganda seemed comical.

During the perestroika era, rock bands sprang up across the Soviet Union. One band, Civil Defense, recorded a song that mocked the positive portrayal of daily life in Soviet propaganda.

The song includes these lyrics, “I bought Korea magazine and it shows Comrade Kim Il Sung, and it shows that everything there is the same as here. And I believe that everything there is going according to plan.”

In a unique twist, Soviet citizens turned North Korean propaganda on its head and used it as a thinly veiled criticism against the communist system as a whole.

These magazines are still being published in Russian-language translations – where they meet, perhaps unsurprisingly, with a warmer reception from the new breed of Russian nationalists. 

And in North Korea itself, of course, nothing changes. The latest from the official Rodong Sinmun, for instance – Agricultural Workers' Dancing Party Held:

A peasants' dancing party was held Wednesday to celebrate the 8th Congress of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea (UAWK).

Among its audience were Vice-Chairman Kim Ki Nam and Department Director Ri Il Hwan of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, and Ri Myong Gil, chairman of the UAWK Central Committee, participants in the 8th UAWK Congress, and agricultural workers in the city.

The performers at a narrative said about benevolent loving care shown by President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il who put forward the peasants as master of land and country and provided them with happy life.

They also presented cheerful dances, turning round decorative tassels to the tune of such songs as "A Bumper Harvest in the Chongsan Plain".

The atmosphere of dancing party reached the height when light music such as "Sea of Apples at Foot of Chol Pass" resounded throughout the venue.

Or the Supreme Leader giving field guidance to the Wonsan Shoes factory:

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, gave field guidance to the Wonsan Shoes Factory.

Shaking hands with the familiar officials of the factory, he appreciated much efforts made by its workers to attain the goal of the 200-day campaign by the end of August last in the vim and vigor with which they greeted the Seventh Congress of the Party after overfulfilling their yearly national economy plan during the 70-day campaign of loyalty. He highly praised them for putting into practice the Party's intention of having turned the factory into a model and icon of the shoes factories of the nation.

He went round the room dedicated to the history of the factory.

Satisfied to learn that the factory is effectively conducting the education of its employees in various forms and by diverse methods after successfully arranging the room dedicated to its history so that they may keenly feel leader Kim Jong Il's love for the people, he called on them to bring their products to the world level with the pride and honor of working at the glorious factory and thus implement the instructions given by the leader to it to the letter.

Going round the injection molding workteam, shoe-making shop, instep strap shop, designing room and other places of the factory, he learnt in detail about the production and quality of products.

Looking with a broad smile at varieties of shoes for men, women and children manufactured by the factory, he said that he could notice the increase in varieties of shoes and improved style of shoes. "They look very nice and it is gratifying," he said, adding with pleasure that the factory has greeted a heyday for shoes….

The whole history of North Korea can be read a grim satire on the socialist system, or indeed, as Christopher Hitchens memorably pointed out, a realisation of Orwell's 1984. It's not so funny for those still living there, though.