As North Korea grapples with flood recovery, authorities are issuing warnings to victims in border regions against “impure propaganda” from South Korea, revealing concerns about eroding loyalty. This cautionary message is embedded within broader directives for intensive reconstruction, originating from the propaganda arm of North Pyongan province’s party committee.
“Ideological propaganda programs must be purposefully carried out in each organization in the province, and especially in the counties and villages on the border. It is also necessary to establish a spirit of high vigilance in our lives,” the instructions said, according to a source in North Pyongan province on Monday.
These instructions are set to serve as the basis for ideological education for residents of those areas.
“Heeding the call of the Central Committee, the entire citizenry of our country is currently coming together to work on recovering from the flood. Thanks to the vigorous efforts of shock troops dispatched from various provinces, cities and counties, the flood-stricken areas are changing by the day,” the preface to the instructions said.
The preface included this information to praise the “shock troops,” or teams of construction workers, that were mobilized to flood reconstruction sites.
“Sinuiju and Uiju county are among the ‘gateway cities’ on the national border. Before long, they will be known not as flood-stricken areas, but as home to a host of new architects of culture,” the instructions said.
However, the regime emphasized the need to stay on guard against “impure propaganda” sent from South Korea.
“The South Korean puppet regime is not happy to see the revolutionary fighting spirit of the soldiers and shock troop members struggling energetically to quickly complete the reconstruction work. The South Koreans are having people creep up to our border to shoot videos disparaging the DPRK and running those videos in their news reports,” the instructions claimed.
The instructions also contained harsh criticism of South Korea: “The puppet regime is going crazy as it seeks to exploit the confusion of our reconstruction efforts to send over impure propaganda.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un previously used the phrase “going crazy” to criticize the South Korean news media in a speech to flood victims on Aug. 9, shortly after the disaster. Kim referred to reports claiming that many North Koreans had died in the flooding as “media reports from a ragtag country of garbage.”
“Our enemies’ trashy newspapers estimate that casualties in the flood-stricken areas exceed 1,000 or 1,500. But those figures are fabricated,” Kim said while paying a visit on Sept. 2 to a North Korean helicopter unit that helped rescue victims during the flood.
The reason the North Korean regime has continued to slam the South Korean media’s reports about the situation in the flood-impacted areas and to instruct citizens to avoid such reports is because flood victims, who live on the border, often hear news from the outside world. The regime is concerned that such exposure could weaken their loyalty to the regime.
Given these factors, the North Pyongan province’s party committee stressed that self-sufficiency is the only path to a wealthy country. “We must fully recognize that it is only when we believe in our own strength in the struggle, and our own self-sufficiency, that the Fatherland can become a wealthy country,” the provincial party committee said in the instructions.
“All workers in the province need to strive together as one to rapidly complete reconstruction in the affected areas and to build a wealthy state,” the instructions said.
On a related note, Kim revisited the flood-impacted areas in North Pyongan province on Sept. 29 to oversee rebuilding and construction work there.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper said that Kim had emphasized that “quickly easing the pain of the flood victims and returning production and living standards in the damaged areas to normal is the greatest priority facing the Party and the government at the current time.”
This was Kim’s third time to visit the flood-impacted areas, following earlier visits on July 28 and on Aug. 8-9. The North Korean regime appears to be highlighting the supreme leader’s “benevolent leadership” to soothe people’s feelings in the flood-impacted areas.
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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October 10, 2024 at 06:30AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)