North Korean authorities have been conducting political lectures for officials promoting the country’s deployment of troops to the Russia-Ukraine war since officially acknowledging the dispatch last month.
According to a Daily NK source in Kangwon province recently, the propaganda and agitation department of the Workers’ Party issued special political lecture materials about the Russia deployment to provincial party committees on May 21. Kangwon province’s party committee then held a regular Saturday lecture for officials based on these materials.
N. Korea leads an alliance of “anti-imperialist forces”
The materials said combat units of the Korean People’s Army took part in operations to liberate Russia’s Kursk region, helping to wipe out Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces and protect Russian territory.
“Our soldiers’ fighting spirit and tactical skills struck fear into the enemy,” the materials said, apparently trying to instill pride in officials about North Korea’s military strength.
The lecturer emphasized that North Korea leads an alliance of anti-imperialist forces.
“The lecturer kept using the phrase, ‘North Korea is a leading nation in the global anti-imperialist front,'” the source said. “This was clearly meant to drill into officials that our military has the combat power not only to protect our homeland but to lead the global strategic balance.”
North Korea is praising its soldiers not just as defenders of the homeland, but as warriors leading an international anti-imperialist alliance and as key fighting forces creating strategic balance.
The materials described North Korea as “one of the great powers leading the world’s political situation,” a comment that seemed aimed at promoting the idea that Pyongyang was showing its presence as a leading nation on the world stage by sending troops to Russia.
Some officials even said things like, “We thought we’d be cut off from the outside world forever, but now we can feel that we’re an international player.”
Officials were also curious about the operation, asking questions like, “Where is Kursk?” and “How did our fighters get to the battlefield and what weapons did they use?”
Sudden change in lecture schedule
This latest lecture was different from the original lecture schedule, the source said. No such lecture was in this year’s lecture plan, which was drawn up by the party’s propaganda and agitation department after being approved by the party’s politburo and secretariat late last year, but the schedule was suddenly changed.
Since North Korea has officially acknowledged to both foreign and domestic audiences its participation in the Russia-Ukraine war, the change in the lecture plan appears driven by the political goal of internally justifying the troop deployment through a special political lecture and promoting the regime to officials.
“Except for special orders related to national holidays or party policy, separate materials for political lectures for officials that differ from the plan are almost never issued, so people think this latest lecture is unusual,” the source said.
