Propaganda Tools on Show in New Film

Choi Song Min  |  2012-08-07 17:46
The North Korean authorities have produced a documentary film about willing “re-defector” Park In Sook and the forcibly repatriated Jeon Young Chul, and are compelling people living in areas of the border region of the country to view it, Daily NK has learned.

A source from Hoiryeong in North Hamkyung Province revealed the news today, telling Daily NK, “On the 4th all the workers at [name withheld] factory complex were gathered in the factory cultural center for a screening of a documentary film. It included footage of the press conferences where Park In Sook and Jeon Young Chul gave testimony, along with some additional interview footage, images and descriptions.”

The source went on, “The basic point of the film was that if you turn your back on the socialist motherland and wander aimlessly in search of a way to survive, you will eventually end up involved in something serious that you cannot escape, like the ‘Statue Demolition Society’.”

“The documentary talked about Park In Sook wandering around South Korea surviving on a low wage because she was too old and nobody wanted her,” the source went on. “It said that Jeon Young Chul was someone who had been unable to settle, had no job and was eventually sucked into a South Korean reactionary organization that led him into crime.”

The new documentary film shows how the North Korean regime is moving away from merely criticizing South Korea while promoting the superiority of the North Korean system to actively portraying it as a hostile state. It is a move that fits in well with recent state media propaganda efforts to play up the existence of a U.S.-sponsored, South Korean-supported movement to demolish statues of Kim Il Sung in the North, the KCNA-dubbed ‘Statue Demolition Society’.

However, the film is not performing its role particularly well, the source said, explaining, “People are tutting in condemnation as they think about these two people and how miserable they’re going to be once they are thrown away like garbage having been used for propaganda. People think that the way to interpret this kind of thing is generally the opposite to the way the authorities intend.”

However, the source also conceded, “Some people are convinced by it, and believe the official word about both Park and Jeon.”

The film comes alongside ongoing measures to strengthen border controls, the source appended. Guards are hunting down people defecting to China as well as those trying to return along familiar routes, while nighttime patrols are ongoing every two hours and the security forces are under orders once again to thoroughly check everyone’s ID card and travel permit.
 
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