The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom by Hassig Ralph & Oh Kongdan

Author:Hassig, Ralph & Oh, Kongdan [Hassig, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780742567207
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2009-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

The New Year’s Joint Editorial

When Kim Il-sung was alive, he recorded a New Year’s message that was broadcast on the radio and published in Nodong Sinmun. Since his death, the message has been replaced by a joint editorial that is not attributed to any individual. No item published in North Korea receives more attention from North Koreans or is read more carefully by foreign analysts than the annual New Year’s editorial, which is comparable to the American president’s State of the Union address. For weeks after its publication, the editorial is discussed in political sessions, and school children are required to memorize parts of it. Its composition involves some of the best writers in the country, and Kim Jong-il certainly provides guidance and criticism. Perhaps to show that Kim is above any single organization, even the party, the joint editorial is published simultaneously in the newspapers of the party, the military, and the youth organization. It is also read on the radio, although not by Kim Jong-il, who has never made a public speech.

For all the attention it receives, the editorial is pretty much the same from one year to the next. The title is meant to be shouted: in 2005, “Let the Whole Party and Army and All the People Unite as One in Mind and More Strikingly Demonstrate the Might of Songun [military-first politics]”; in 2006, “Make a Higher Leap Full of Great Ambition and Confidence”; in 2007, “Usher in a Great Heyday of Songun Korea Full of Confidence in Victory”; in 2008, “Let Us Glorify This Year of the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the DPRK As a Year of Historical Turn That Will Go Down in the History of the Fatherland”; and in 2009, “Glorify This Year As a Year of a New Revolutionary Upsurge Sounding the General Advance.”

The editorial begins by boasting of the progress made in the preceding year: In 2005: “Last year, Juche 93 [2004], was a year of worthwhile struggle in which a revolutionary offensive was conducted on three fronts: politics and ideology, anti-imperialism and military affairs, and economy and science—to make a breakthrough toward fresh success in the efforts to build a great prosperous powerful nation.” In 2006: “Last year was a year of fruitful efforts and a year of great creation and changes.” In 2007: “Last year was embroidered as a great year of victory and a year of upheaval when the dawn of a powerful socialist state broke.” In 2008: “Last year was a year of proud victories in which the great vitality of our party’s military-first revolutionary line was powerfully proven and great advances were made in the building of a prosperous and powerful fatherland.” In 2009: “Last year was a year of historic turn which had written a chapter of brilliant victory in the proud 60-year annals of the DPRK.” Of course, Kim Jong-il is given credit for all victories and accomplishments, as in, “These shining victories and successes made by our army and people last

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