In these days a news about North Korea is becoming popular.
According to what has been disclosed by the media, Kim Jong-un has forbidden the wearing of jeans, in addition to having imposed a ban on the viewing of foreign films and the use of foreign slang and much more. But will it be true?
The Mirror, a well-known British tabloid, was among the first to report the news in the West.
The information it discloses is taken from an article published in Yonhap News, a South Korean news agency famous for referring to anonymous or biased sources, such as the SNI (South Korean National Intelligence Service)
But the text of the Yonhap News article is another story altogether. It does not speak of any imposition by the dictator in force, but presents an excerpt from an article outside publishing where it warns against the capitalist lifestyle.
Yonhap News also claims to have drawn this summary from Rodong Sinmum, a newspaper of the Central Committee of the North Korean Labor Party.
The Rodong Sinmum, however, does not contain articles relating to "jeans", "capitalist influx" or "banned films" that are relevant to the news about the bans. Not even if the date, reported by Yonhap News, of the alleged publication of these reference articles is entered.
To endorse the truthfulness of the news, several media also cited a letter that North Korean President Kim sent to the Socialist Youth League.
Too bad that the letter published on April 30 by the North Korean media does not speak of the fight against jeans or foreign language but of a contrast to "capitalist ideology" and other "ideological elements that go against socialism and collectivism".
Another often cited source is the Daily NK of Seoul (capital of South Korea), openly aligned against North Korea and from which many famous hoaxes have started, such as the one on the compulsory haircut or on the dogs requisitioned to the owners and sent to restaurant kitchens, not to mention rumors of Kim Jong Un’s death that circulated last year.
In fact, the Daily Nk is made up of deserters who cite unverifiable sources as the BBC itself admits in reporting the news: "The BBC cannot verify this news".
It is also cited as the only source in the variant of the news entitled "The North Korean government defines K-Pop a" vicious cancer. "In fact, the North Korean leader hates Kpop so much that in 2018 he changed his plans to attend the performance of the Red Velvet, calling the exhibition "a gift for the citizens of Pyongyang".
But let’s go deeper about the South Korean newspaper. The DailyNK is officially funded by the "National Endowment for Democracy Ned Democracy".
What is Ned Democracy? is a United States agency founded in 1983 with the declared goal of "promoting democracy abroad", obviously in the American way.
The NED has partly replaced the CIA CIA in this activity, acting since the 1980s in overthrowing countless governments and attempting coups in many countries around the world.
NED is funded directly by the US government and is recognized by the CIA as its successor in practice.
Philip Agee, a former CIA agent, gave an interview in the 1990s and said: The CIA today (1990s) no longer needs to work behind the scenes disturbing the local election process by injecting money here, building things. there, because now they can work on "psychology" thanks to the National Endowment for Democracy NED.
And this was confirmed by one of the founders of NED to the Washington Post in the United States: "Much of what we do today was done by the CIA 25 years ago in disguise."
Furthermore, the news was denied by both a North Korean government official and a Russian diplomat. As regards the first denial, we are talking about Alejandro Cao, Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea and the special delegate of the Committee for cultural relations with foreign countries of North Korea.
In an interview with the Spanish channel "Trece" he denies:
"The news is false, it is part of the propaganda, this information does not come from North Korea but rather from the dailyNK which is a US intelligence newspaper, which is paid for by the US Senate".
As for the diplomat we are talking about the Russian Elena Sorokina, who in a story of her Instagram comments on the news by writing: "they say that North Korea prohibits skinny jeans, piercings and Mullet haircuts. I’m sure it’s fake" .
What is North Korea’s real attitude and legislation regarding clothing and in general towards Western culture?
We can find foreign films and Disney (United States) animations showing in North Korea.
It is not difficult to find foreign songs to sing in karaoke, very popular in the country. From Rage Against the Machine to songs like "Back in the USSR". Not only that, videos of several concerts are available on Youtube in which North Korean bands like Moranbong perform on famous foreign songs, from Disney songs to classical and European popular music. North Korea hates what is produced in the South so much that in June 2019, the North Korean newspaper DPRK Today praised Bong Joon Ho’s film Parasite.
Towards Western culture, the "mosquito net policy" is practiced: opening the country’s doors to the positive contributions of world art and science, rejecting enemy propaganda and consumerist garbage that unfortunately abounds in our media system.
Films that are not broadcast in the DPRK are films with explicit sexual content, gory films, and US propaganda films such as those in which they win wars as world saviors and kill Vietnamese.
North Koreans can safely watch Titanic and even Tarantino movies. In 2009 the journalists of the Republic were surprised to find in the libraries of Pyongyang the novels of George Orwell, to whose dystopias North Korea is so often compared. But in this case we are the victims of a double thought that escapes any fact-checking and confrontation with reality.
SOURCES: http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2021-04-30-0011&fbclid=IwAR0fDYEoxyAQQE9_pLV2k99zHzjlQTMVA6OkzlprYmlQjW53iak2vvnEJ2E
http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2021-04-30-0011&fbclid=IwAR0fDYEoxyAQQE9_pLV2k99zHzjlQTMVA6OkzlprYmlQjW53iak2vvnEJ2E
https://m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20210513003400325?section=nk%2Fnk
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57225936
https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/news/global/article/3071071/kim-jong-un-now-red-velvet-superfan-seeing-k-pop-girl-band
https://www.dailynk.com/english/pyongyang-cadres-worried-about-kim-jong-uns-health/
https://www.dailynk.com/english/hairstyles-and-hallyu-as-security/
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-buying-up-dogs-supply-restaurants-pyongyang/
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Agee_on_NED_interview
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/
https://twitter.com/ElCascabelTRECE/status/1402390320915025920?s=19
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-oscar-parasite-northkorea-idUSKBN20F1CU
https://www.repubblica.it/2009/10/sezioni/esteri/corea-nord/corea-nord/corea-nord.html
https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-jeans_film_stranieri_e_sulle_altre_incredibili_fake_news_contro_la_corea_del_nord/82_41778/
