Rason’s party committee recently instructed local party officials on the contents of an order from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that equated “delusions about South Korea” with “death.”<\/p>\n
On Jan. 4, the municipal party committee received the full text of Kim’s order, which was handed down by North Hamgyong Province’s party committee and warned: “The delusion that South Korea is a fraternal nation is tantamount to death because the South is a hostile nation that opposes us politically, ideologically and militarily,” according to a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province on Tuesday, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.<\/p>\n
Under orders of the provincial party committee, the Rason party committee drilled the content of the directive into cadres above the rank of elementary party secretary.<\/p>\n
“The order, which refers to South Korea in a derogatory manner from beginning to end, focuses on the idea that we must not tolerate thinking of South Korea as a brother or longing for South Korea’s capitalist economy or liberal ideology,” the source said.<\/p>\n
In particular, the order called for severe punishment of people who “disturb public sentiment” by spreading unfounded rumors or by watching, distributing, or concealing movies, television programs, news, or other visual content that promotes South Korea’s government, ideology, and culture.<\/p>\n
The directive urged members of the judiciary, police, and state security apparatus to step up ideological indoctrination and intensify crackdowns and inspections in preparation for possible public unrest.<\/p>\n
The order further claimed that the domestic situation in South Korea is approaching a crisis due to the anti-American and anti-Yoon Suk Yeol struggle of “patriotic” South Koreans and that North Korea must be fully prepared because the protests of the South Korean people could explode into an uprising without warning.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the order called on the cadres to closely follow the political developments in South Korea and keep the North Korean people fully informed. It also urged them to awaken the class consciousness of the party members and workers, unite them under the values of the party, and prepare them to support the patriotic struggle of the South Korean people.<\/p>\n
The order also called on officials to have a correct understanding of the state’s policy on South Korea and to work and live with the conviction that they should become the “standard-bearers and trumpeters of agitation and propaganda” to intensify the resistance of the South Korean people. It also stated that, if a situation arose, North Koreans must unite with the patriotic masses of South Korea to pacify the South and achieve territorial reunification. This, the order said, would be the “main strike direction of the ideological front.”<\/p>\n
“After receiving Kim Jong Un’s order, Rason’s party committee stressed that the city’s location on the border with China and Russia means that it must resolutely reject and oppose the reckless infiltration of South Korean culture and boldly respond – with criminal punishment – to people who pour cold water on the Workers’ Party’s policy on South Korea, and promptly expose and crush them as forces collaborating with the enemy.”<\/p>\n