North Korea has released an ideological video that seeks to indoctrinate the public about the importance of establishing a “socialist lifestyle.” The video condemns “trashy people,” including those who smoke on the streets or drink booze outdoors.
The video, which was recently acquired by Daily NK, begins with a female voice narrating over a shot of the neat streets and tall buildings of Mirae (Future) Scientists Street in Pyongyang.
“The blooming of genuine courtesy and morality and of a refined and civilized socialist lifestyle is what will bring more brightness, warmth and civilization to our society,” the narrator intones.
The background music soon cuts out, and a series of photographs are displayed: a crouching man puffing on a cigarette, another smoking man on the street with his mask down, and a man drinking alcohol outside.
The narration continues: “But no small number of people have forgotten their noble duty and identity as citizens of the capital and have let discipline lapse in their lives, while undermining the healthy atmosphere and disrupting the creation of a cultured lifestyle.”
Next, the video highlights a number of episodes while pointing to the shortcomings of the behaviors displayed therein.
In the first of these episodes, two men are shown smoking near the Three Revolutions Exhibition, a museum in Pyongyang.
“How hideous these men look, squatting down to take a smoke! See how they spit on the ground between each puff. Needless to say, these are culture Philistines with slovenly habits,” the narrator says.
The narrator also mentions rules related to an anti-smoking law that took effect in November 2020: smoking is prohibited in public places and only allowed in designated smoking areas.
“While our entire society is proactively striving today to conform to the rules of the anti-smoking law, how can those senseless comrades who are still smoking, spitting and rubbing out cigarette butts on the ground in public spaces be said to have self-consciousness as citizens? These are pathetic people without a hint of civic consciousness or concern for the law,” the narrator says.
The video also takes issue with immoral and uncultured behavior among the youth, with the narrator remarking that “everybody smoking on the street is a young person.”
“We’re past the time when such behavior could be corrected through exhortation and education. This struggle needs to be greatly intensified at the social, organizational and mass levels so that these outdated and obsolete habits and uncultured habits can be firmly stamped out.”
“The North Korean authorities regard all disorderly and indecent behavior as stemming from a capitalist lifestyle. Identifying and controlling even the smallest aspects of people’s lives, including slovenly appearance and behavior, appears to have the political objective of advertising the ‘morality’ and ‘sophistication’ of socialism while simultaneously reinforcing internal discipline,” said Lee Seung-ju, a political scientist who works as a profiler for the Transitional Justice Working Group.
This educational video is composed of clips of North Koreans who were secretly recorded engaging in problematic behaviors. Those individuals’ faces are fully visible, with none blurred out. Given that fact, it is highly possible that the people in the video have already been punished or suffered political disadvantages in their workplaces and other organizations.
That illustrates how North Korea reinforces internal solidarity by constantly indoctrinating citizens about the need to maintain a socialist lifestyle.
“Neglecting efforts to establish a socialist lifestyle while focusing solely on economic development is self-destructive behavior that is equivalent to dozing off before the gun barrels of our foes,” wrote the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling party, in an article explaining the political term “socialist lifestyle” in September 2022.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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