Mick Hartley

From the Daily NK:

North Korea has been focusing on ideological indoctrination to teach the public that it is a completely independent nation — not an incomplete, divided nation — in accordance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “two hostile states” doctrine.

A Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently that the Central Committee’s publicity and information department has been striving to indoctrinate the entire public, including party officials, so that they understand North Korea is one completely independent nation, distributing study material titled “Our Republic is a One Complete National System” on Oct. 17.

According to the source, the party committee of North Hamgyong province called for a complete cessation of outdated pro-unification indoctrination activities, stressing that Kim Jong Un said national unification is no longer a task for the age and that North Korea itself is a complete national system, based on the study materials….

In particular, the provincial party committee said contemporary indoctrination efforts must focus on establishing an ideological system centered solely on “our republic” so that people stop viewing the South as a subject of competition or comparison.

A telling detail. Any comparison with South Korea – a cultural and economic powerhouse – would not be welcome in Pyongyang. Decades ago, when Great Leader Kim Il Sung laid such weight on unification, it was always on the not-unrealistic understanding that the South would submit to the superior power of the North. Those days are long past.

Moreover, the provincial party committee noted that if people are to naturally internalize the idea that the North and South are two different countries, the role of propaganda and security officials is important.

Propaganda officials were ordered to take the lead in producing slogans, songs and propaganda materials to instill the idea that “our republic is one, complete nation” and everything must be organized in a way that glorifies not only the lifestyle and development of the “independent state” but also the leadership of Kim Jong Un, the source said.

Security officials were told to prevent impure thoughts from budding and taking root by completely blocking the spread of outside information, especially South Korean videos and rumors regarding the South, the source said.

Surely by now the idea of Korean unification, along the lines of East and West Germany, is dead in the water. The North doesn’t want it, and while the South still pays lip service, the feeling in the general population seems to be indifference at best. Why bother? It would be horrendously expensive, even before Chinese and Russian influence is taken into consideration.