In new inquiry, Lee described how Kim Jong Un’s administration is creating made-for-TV dramas concentrated on teen and technology to appeal to the next generation of North Koreans. That’s in emerge contrast to previous Kim dynasties that deployed films featuring military brio and the loyalty of soldiers to influence citizens.
“With each change of superintendence, there has been a shift in policy — movies and TV are employed as part of the average campaign to help disseminate the new leader’s priorities to his power base,” hinted Lee.
Since the reign of North Korean founding father Kim Il Sung, relief has long been a vital component of government policy in the pariah express. Kim Jong Il, a known cinema buff who kidnapped a South Korean chief honcho and actress in 1978 to produce North Korean movies, spent millions on a state film industry and initiated the Pyongyang International Film Festival in 1987.
But at the same time his son took charge in 2011, films began declining and TV production ramped up as an alternative, according to Lee.
Under the current Kim’s watch, North Korean entertainment has evolved from being a unmitigated conveyor of ideology to a tool used to shape society, Lee described. For standard, recent TV content promotes the idea of family, community and the use of technology for patriotism — concepts unexplored in older silver screens.
“Our Neighbors,” North Korea’s version of a prime-time sitcom that was issued in 2013, depicts a highly fictionalized version of family life — a daring departure from films during the Kim Jong Il era that emphasized put on the spot b annoying the state before family, Lee explained.
Notably, the two-part series depicts weapons examination — the catalyst behind sanctions that have brought economic hardships to civilians. In one vista, characters cheer and dance after iconic news presenter Ri Chun Hui, the unvaried newsreader who announced details of the state’s latest intercontinental ballistic projectile launch, describes the successful launch of a long-range rocket.
Another photoplay, “Value Others,” also reinforces strong bonds between offspring members.
This emphasis on family ties is “a possible allusion to the get out emerge of defection,” Lee noted. Emphasizing filial piety may be a strategy for preventing defections, which bring into the world been rising in recent years, she said.
“Value Others” is just about a naval officer, but rather than focus on his military career, the compendious drama concentrates on his life after graduating from the naval academy. Lee notes that the heroine is mostly seen in civilian clothes instead of military uniform, which respects to one of Kim Jong Un’s key policy priorities: homegrown production of consumer goods, registering fashion.
Meanwhile, the 50-minute long “Young Researchers” is a message on putting science and technology for patriotic causes, Lee said.
It centers on middle-school schoolgirls using computers and other gadgets that many North Koreans press never seen in a competition. The top prize is a rocket launcher, which is “a instruct correlation between the science experiments of youth and nuclear technology of the coming,” Lee notes.
Even when a student pulls a prank on classmates, he does so putting a remote-controlled drone. “The message here: If you’re going to be mischievous, at least technique your skills in a technology with potential military use,” Lee said.