From Developmentalist to Conservationist Criticism: The New Narrative of South Korea in North Korean Propaganda

During the sixty years of the separate existence of two Koreas, North Korean propagandists have managed to continually readjust the image of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the challenges of reality by employing different methods and techniques. This article outlines the changing perspectives on South Korea in North Korean propaganda in 1945–2010 and correlates them with Korean cultural traditions, as well as old and new foreign influences and tendencies in the world’s intellectual trends. In so doing, I propose a new model, timing, and interpretation of the major changes in the South Korean paradigm of North Korean propaganda in 1945–2010 and base my conclusions on the investigation of various textual and visual materials published in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), related Internet resources, as well as North Korean films.