The recent killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has shocked the world.
Abe was giving a stump speech ahead of Japan’s House of Councillors election in Nara on July 8 when he was shot by a man named Yamagami Tetsuya. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital about 15 minutes after he was shot, but he ultimately died.
The killing shocked the entire world, with leaders from all over expressing deep condolences. However, North Korea has run no reports on the killing, and most North Koreans are unaware of what happened.
Still, a handful of North Koreans have quietly used several means to learn of the assassination, while cadres at major North Korean institutions are learning of what happened through emergency orders issued by the authorities.
Daily NK talked with four North Koreans immediately after the Abe assassination. While some North Koreans expressed a degree of regret over the killing, they also expressed distaste for Abe and Japan. This appears to be in part due to brainwashing by the North Korean authorities, which constantly conduct propaganda attacks against Japan.
In particular, the North Koreans interviewed found it natural that the North Korean authorities issued no official expressions of sympathy over Abe’s death. They all agreed that North Korea could never express sympathy over the death of a Japanese political leader after pushing decades of anti-Japanese ideological education.
Read on to hear the thoughts of a resident of Yanggang Province (A), a resident of Kaesong (B), a cadre from Pyongyang (C) and a military cadre (D).
DNK: Former Japanese Prime Minister Abe was shot to death by an assailant while he was giving a stump speech. Were you aware of this?
A: Remittance brokers with Chinese-made mobile phones often talk with people who live in China or South Korea. I heard the news through them. Also, rumors about major incidents or pieces of news from abroad spread quickly. Most ordinary people don’t know about the killing. With rumors spreading quickly, however, everyone will know about it soon.
B: I saw the news about it as I was switching through television channels. But many people don’t know about it because the government has said nothing official about what happened. (EDITOR’S NOTE: South Korean broadcasting can be received in some regions along the DMZ.)
C: I learned about it through an emergency internal order. The order was immediately issued to high-ranking personal security, state security, social security and party cadres. Aside from high-ranking cadres, people probably don’t know about the incident because they couldn’t hear about it.
D: I found out about it through an emergency order that was issued to the army’s organizational department. We’re working hard to stop rumors, so people probably haven’t heard about it.
DNK: What did you think when you heard that Abe was shot and killed?
A: First, I was surprised to hear he was shot and killed. I thought that was quite unfortunate. I was raised learning bad things about Japan, but I think it’s wrong to kill a human being. I was even more surprised because it’s something you can’t even imagine happening in North Korea.
B: I didn’t know that in other countries, national leaders become ordinary citizens after they quit office. On a personal level, I understood he was [prime minister] for a long time, and I thought he must have done many wicked things to have been killed in the street like that even after he [left office].
C: I didn’t really think anything about it.
D: If soldiers or ordinary people learn of the incident, they can draw connections and imagine things. I thought it wouldn’t be good for people to learn about it.
DNK: Did you know what kind of person Abe was? And what was your usual impression of him?
A: I just knew that for the last couple of years, he kept complaining about our country to the international community over the issue of Japanese abductees. I didn’t have any particular impression of him.
B: I was taught that Abe was a warmonger, somebody who prayed at the Yasukuni Shrine and dreamed of reviving Japanese militarism. I had no personal impression of the man.
C: I understand he quit due to illness, but he had been the longest serving Japanese prime minister. Aside from that, I never really thought about him.
D: I had a good impression of former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro. I understand Abe was from the same faction, but unlike Koizumi, he didn’t try to normalize diplomatic ties between North Korea and Japan, so things just kept getting worse. My impression was that he was the model of a typical imperialist leader.
DNK: Messages of condolence are flooding in from all over the world, including from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but North Korea has said nothing. What do you think about this?
A: You can think of it as our national characteristic, that we extend no good will to nations with whom we are unfriendly. In particular, there have been few exchanges with Japan since Comrade Kim Jong Un assumed power. Moreover, our people, youth and students learn that Japan is a bad country that controlled our country for decades, so I guess the authorities don’t want to deny our nation’s identity by sending condolences.
B: Japan is one of our nation’s three main enemies. I think the death of the former leader of an enemy country without us firing a shot is something to be welcomed, not mourned. Our nation has long taught us that Abe was a shameless former leader who offered no proper apologies to our country, so I think condolences are what you express to a neighbor, or to nations or people you feel good about.
C: In fact, I think when somebody dies, expressing courtesy to the dead is the right thing to do, even if they did bad things when they were alive. However, I think it’s alright if the state doesn’t express condolences.
D: We won’t express condolences since we have national pride. Japan is one of our sworn enemies, with whom we can’t live with under the same sky, and [now] that nation’s former prime minister has died. Not expressing condolences demonstrates the state’s unchanging position that Japan is an enemy. I think just being quiet and not speaking ill of Abe counts as a courtesy.
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