ID :
39838
Sat, 01/10/2009 - 08:10
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/39838
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea lashes out at capitalist culture amid internal woes
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea vowed to step up its drive to repel the
influx of capitalist culture, a call that appeared to be aimed at deflecting
blame for economic woes and counteracting anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from South
Korea.
"As is manifested by the cases of Eastern Europe countries that were on their way
to socialism, one becomes unable to safeguard the society if it fails to shut off
the dissemination of bourgeois ideology and culture by reactionary imperialists,"
the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's Workers' Party, said in a commentary
carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
With its economy teetering and foreign culture seeping in through cracks in the
border, North Korea is bracing for growing challenges to its solipsistic regime,
analysts say. South Korean movies, TV dramas and music are increasingly common
there, as merchants smuggle in DVDs and CDs through China, they say.
In one such sign, a North Korean sportscaster last week highly lauded Manchester
United winger Park Ji-sung of South Korea as "a player who has the ability of
two." During a broadcast of the British team's match with Ecuador's Liga de
Quito, he said Park "has good mobility and high fighting energy" as a "key player
of the South Korean team."
Cho Jeong-ah, a researcher with Korea Institute for National Unification, a
state-run think tank in Seoul, says a growing number of North Koreans have
accepted South Korean pop culture as the economic woes from the mid-1990s
loosened the regime's control of them.
"The most notable trend is their anti-socialist behavior spreading across the
country through official and unofficial markets," Cho says.
Cho also noted the growing impact of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent via
balloons by North Korean defectors that criticize North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il's alleged lavish lifestyle and mismanagement of the state, a provocative
move that has drawn calls for a restraint even in the South.
North Korea has repeatedly urged the South to stop the defectors' "malicious"
campaign.
The Rodong Sinmun said, "Countries and people who aim for independent growth and
social progress should look squarely into the danger and aftermaths of the
schemes to disseminate bourgeois ideology and culture and should aggressively
prevent them."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
influx of capitalist culture, a call that appeared to be aimed at deflecting
blame for economic woes and counteracting anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from South
Korea.
"As is manifested by the cases of Eastern Europe countries that were on their way
to socialism, one becomes unable to safeguard the society if it fails to shut off
the dissemination of bourgeois ideology and culture by reactionary imperialists,"
the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's Workers' Party, said in a commentary
carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
With its economy teetering and foreign culture seeping in through cracks in the
border, North Korea is bracing for growing challenges to its solipsistic regime,
analysts say. South Korean movies, TV dramas and music are increasingly common
there, as merchants smuggle in DVDs and CDs through China, they say.
In one such sign, a North Korean sportscaster last week highly lauded Manchester
United winger Park Ji-sung of South Korea as "a player who has the ability of
two." During a broadcast of the British team's match with Ecuador's Liga de
Quito, he said Park "has good mobility and high fighting energy" as a "key player
of the South Korean team."
Cho Jeong-ah, a researcher with Korea Institute for National Unification, a
state-run think tank in Seoul, says a growing number of North Koreans have
accepted South Korean pop culture as the economic woes from the mid-1990s
loosened the regime's control of them.
"The most notable trend is their anti-socialist behavior spreading across the
country through official and unofficial markets," Cho says.
Cho also noted the growing impact of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent via
balloons by North Korean defectors that criticize North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il's alleged lavish lifestyle and mismanagement of the state, a provocative
move that has drawn calls for a restraint even in the South.
North Korea has repeatedly urged the South to stop the defectors' "malicious"
campaign.
The Rodong Sinmun said, "Countries and people who aim for independent growth and
social progress should look squarely into the danger and aftermaths of the
schemes to disseminate bourgeois ideology and culture and should aggressively
prevent them."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
