Mick Hartley

We've heard about North Korea's anti-reactionary thought law, and the drive to remove all traces of South Korean culture. Apparently that extends to removing all mention of those unfortunates who've been liquidated after having caused displeasure to Kim Jong-un.

Richard Lloyd Parry in the Times – North Korea makes it a crime to read about Kim’s purged enemies:

In a move reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984, North Korea has made it a crime to read news about people who have been purged or executed by the regime of its supreme leader, Kim Jong-un.

The Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law, which was introduced 11 months ago, bans books, music, films, television and even slang from South Korea in an effort to stamp out the growing influence of Pyongyang’s rich and democratic neighbour. Now researchers have found that it also bans North Korean reports that have since been rewritten or removed to excise from history individuals offensive or embarrassing to the government.

Copies of part of the law, which has not been published, have been leaked to defectors in Seoul. As well as pornography and “superstitious” material such as Bibles, it criminalises the distribution and viewing of material that “has been nationally suspended”.

The offence is punishable by three months or more of imprisonment with labour. Offenders can also be fined from 10,000 to 50,000 North Korean won ($2 to $10 at the black market rate).

In Orwell’s dystopian novel of a totalitarian Britain of the near future, the hero, Winston Smith, rewrites articles in The Times, removing references to what are referred to as “unpersons”. Something similar happens in North Korea, at least judging from the online versions of its state media that are available to scrutiny outside the country.

In 2013 Chang Sung-thaek, Kim’s close aide and uncle by marriage, was executed after “confessing” to crimes that included plotting a coup, the dissemination of pornography, failing to applaud enthusiastically and causing a monument honouring Kim to be erected “in a shaded corner”.

Within hours, the Rodong Sinmun (Workers’ Newspaper) and Uriminzokkiri, an online portal, had removed virtually all articles mentioning him. He was also removed from television reports.

A similar rewriting of history occurred after the purging of Pak Nam-gi, a senior finance official who oversaw a disastrous currency revaluation in 2009 and the former chief of staff of the Korean People’s Army, Ri Yong-ho, who vanished from sight in 2012.

The law also imposes harsh sentences on those caught watching, listening or simply being in possession of “films, recordings, publications, books, songs, drawings or photos from South Korea”. Even singing a South Korean song or printing text in a South Korean font can be punished by two years with labour.

Dealers in such contraband can be executed or sentenced to life imprisonment. In the past such material flowed easily across the porous land border with China but the authorities appear to have taken advantage of a crackdown on crossing points during the pandemic to stifle smuggling.

Christopher Hitchens was there first with the inevitable 1984 comparison:

The North Korean state was founded in 1950/51. That's the year 1984 was published for the first time. You think, could it be that someone handed a Korean translation to Kim il Sung and said, "Do you think we could make this fly?"…