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| Andrew Stewart |
By Andrew Stewart, Class of 2015
Last week I went to the lecture "Uncovering Patterns in North Korea Nuclear Rhetoric" presented by Western Kentucky University professor Timothy S. Rich. As Americans our perspectives of North Korea is that they are irrational and strange. However, little is known about the North Korean leadership. But Professor Rich explains that a paradox is currently taking place. In actuality, North Korea gives the world lots of material and insight into their country. However, few empirical studies have been made about North Korean intent and patterns of leadership. Professor Rich analyzed North Korean’s own words, by dissecting North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). This information was made available by North Korea via web in 1997. The KCNA news has been dismissed as propaganda. This news source gives insight into the factional interest within North Korean government and changes in officers.
The KCNA news site is structured with 6-20 articles a day. The news agency covers stories from the mundane to pressing issues. However, the news presented daily has a lag or absence of coverage. The coverage is selective, and events that happen weeks ago won’t be reported in this news sources the next day, but weeks after the event. Professor Rich makes a few assumptions about this propaganda news source. First, he assumes that the coverage makes distinctions from domestic news. He also assumes that the news source will focus on nuclear issues and on the US. Professor Rich assumes that the coverage will speak about the influence of the administrations and how the Kim family is referenced.
Through Professor Rich’s research he found that some of these assumptions were true and some were not. Professor Rich analyzed KCNA daily reports from 1997-2012. He found that North Korea refers to the nuclear issue about 4 times a day. The North Koreans place an abundance of nuclear references in this propaganda coverage. However, if nuclear testing or missile testing was to go wrong, don’t be surprised if all of a sudden the story goes away or is incomplete in their coverage. Another interesting finding in Professor Rich’s research is the reference to the Kim family. Kim Il Sung, the North Korean leader who died in 1994, is still referenced almost every day. Kim Jung Il, the North Korean leader who just recently passed, is also almost mentioned every day. But Kim Jung Un, the current North Korean leader, is almost never mentioned. The North Korean citizens seem to revere the past leadership and think very little of the current leadership of Kim Jung Un. The US is also mentioned in the coverage, but not as frequently as other countries. The countries of Japan and South Korea are mentioned much more frequently in this news coverage. But every time the US is mentioned, it is always in a negative overtone. While nations, such as China, are seen as an ally towards North Korea, are mentioned very positively.
Professor Rich speaks of a few implications of the KCNA news coverage. The KCNA is not static propaganda. The North Koreans are framing the nuclear issue. The news coverage is framing the leadership in North Korea and especially of Kim Jung Un. This KCNA is a ploy to make the North Koreans seem powerful, technological and savvy, while making their “enemy” nations seem weak yet threatening North Korean interests. The KCNA is a way for North Korea to give the world insight into their daily operations, but used in a way to make them look great in order to skew other nations’ perspectives on how they view North Korea. This is truly propaganda.
Andrew Stewart, of Radcliff, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is studying political science.