북한, YouTube로 군사퍼레이드는 줄이고, Pizza먹는 쇼는 늘리는 흑색선전에 열중, 60%가 먹거리가 없는데.....

 Social Media가 발달되면서, 이제 북한에서는 남한과 전세계를 향해 흑색선전하는 방법이 완전히 바뀌었다는 뉴스다. 예를 들면, 한국 또는 서구사회에서 생필품이 꽉찬 수퍼마켙에서 일반시민들이 쇼핑하는것이 보편화된것은 관심의 대상이 될 이유가 없는, 일상생활에서 삶의 일부인데, 지금 북한이 그러한 서구사회의 일상생활을 copy해서, 똑같은 그로서리 스토어를 만들어, 선택된 주민들이 고급옷을 입고, Face Mask하고, 쇼핑하는 모습을 비디오로 만들어, YouTube를 통해 전세계에 내보내고 있다.  전에는 군사퍼레이드로 군사적 힘의 우위를 과시하곤 했었는데....

북한, 이제는 YouTube로 흑색선전에 열중, 군사 퍼레이드는 줄고, Pizza는 늘고.

북한의 social media가 북한이 많이 발달하여 현대화된것 처럼 흑색선전으로 북한체제의 변화된 모습과 메세지를 보여주기에 혈안이다. 마치 서구사회에서의 일상생활 처럼.

평양에서 옷을 단정하게 입은 젊은 여성들이 불히 환하게 켜져있는 그로서리 스토어에서 하이힐을 신고, 스토어안의 셀브를 쳐다보면서 아이쇼핑을 하고, 냉장고에는 음료수, 초코렛, 캔디류와 다른 스낵들이 가득 채워져 있었다.

북한에서 생필품 구입하는게 어렵다는 사실이 많이 알려지고( reports) 있는데, 그사실을 알아보기위해 현지에 가서, 쇼핑객들과 점원들에게 물건들의 재고가 바닥난적이 있었느냐고 물었더니, 그들은 한결같이 그런적이 없다는 대답이었다. 북한인주민들은 수입품에 대한 구입이 거의 불가능한 물품의 가격이 오르는 적이 있었는가?라고 물었었다.

"지금 Covid-19과 처절하게 싸우고 있는 와중에 우리가 맨 마지막으로 보여줄수있는 거짖뉴스라고 생각됩니다."라고 그녀는 설명해주었다. 그녀는 그녀의 YouTube채널,Echo of Truth을 영어로 하는데 32,000여명이 봤다고 설명해준다. 

'은아'라는 젊은 여성은 북한의 흑색선전에 새로 등장한 인물인데, 가장 많이 신경쓰고있는, 기근, 인권유린과 핵저장으로 완전 고립된 독재정권의 이미지를, 현대화되고 신선한 모습으로 보여주기위한 북한 흑색선전을 하는 북한의 새로운 얼굴이다.

social media시대에, 국가로 부터 지원을 받아 고화질의 비디오를 만들어 지구촌 사람들에게 보여주기위한 작업은 아주 간단하다.  북한주민들은 겉으로 볼때는 지구상의 모든 사람들과 다를게 없다. 주민들은 그들의 자유시간에 sports를 즐기고, roller coasters를 타면서 비명도 지르고, 쇼핑몰에서 물건도 구입하고, 피자도 즐겨 먹는다(eat pizza)

북한의 김정은이 세계를 향해 그가 추진하고있는 계획들을 북한뿐 아니고 해외서도 볼수있도록 몰아부치는, 북한의 거짖 모습을 보여주기위해 잘 만들어진 흑색선전인 것이다. 

요즘 김정은이는 북한 주민들에게 세계화, 평준화된 현대화를 위해 신경써줄것을 계속해서 주문하고 있는 한편으로는, 북한은 핵무기를 보유하는한 평화속에서 살수있다는 그의 주장을 다른 나라들이 수긍하도록 노력을 쏟고있는 것이다.

"은아"를 포함한 선전용 젊은여성들이 북한의 쇼케이스인 수도 평양의 포근한 모습을 보여주기위해 심혈을 기울이고 있다.  그들은 restaurants, grocery stores의 내부를 보여주며, 잘보수된 메트로, 잘가꾸어진 중산층의 가정도 보여주고있다. 가끔씩은 영어로 설명하며, 제목을 English, Chinese or German으로 부쳐 설명해주기도 한다.

평양시 밖의 다른 지역에서는 생필품 구입이 불가능하다.  미국이 짐작하기로는 북한 주민의 약 60%이상은, 금년에만, 먹거리가(don’t have enough to eat) 충분하지 않다고 한다.

나의 영웅(My Hero)이라는 비디오에서, 은아의 할아버지가 나오는데, 그는 1950-53년 한국전쟁에 참전한 역전의 용사로 묘사하면서, 은아는 그녀자신을 "보통 가정에서 태어난 조선의 소녀"라고 강조하고 있다.

북한 주민의 60%이상이 먹거리가 없어, 금년 겨울 나기가 무척이나 어려울것이라는 미국을 포함한 서방세계의 우려가 마음을 우울하게 하고 있는데도, 북한의 거짖선전은 언제쯤 끝낼수 있을까?  한국정부가 미국을 포함한 서방동맹국들과 고삐를 꽉잡고, 핵무기로서는 절대로 주민들이 잘살수 없다는 것을 보여주기위해, 행동으로 보여줘서, 서로 상생하는 방법을 찾아야 할텐데.... 문재인과 이인영같은 정치꾼이 반대로 행동을 하고 있으니...

          북한에서 지난 4월에 내보낸 You Tube의 흑색선전 비디오가 잘 꾸며진 그로서리 스토어를 보여주고 있다.

SEOUL, South Korea — A well-dressed young woman toured a shiny, brightly lit grocery store in Pyongyang, where high-heeled women browsed shelves and refrigerators filled with beverages, chocolates, candies and other snacks.

International reports of possible panic buying in North Korea had surfaced, and she was there to find the truth. She asked shoppers and clerks if any goods were out of stock; they weren’t. She asked if prices were rising; just imported products, which North Koreans shunned anyway.

“I think the fake news is the last thing we need in such a fierce battle time with Covid-19,” she told her 32,900 viewers in English on her YouTube channel, Echo of Truth.

The young woman, Un A, is the new face of North Korean propaganda, an attempt to create a more benign and modern image of an isolated dictatorship most associated with famines, ​​human rights abuses and nuclear stockpiles.

Designed for a global audience in the social media era, the state-sponsored message in the high quality, slickly produced videos is simple: North Koreans, they’re just like everyone else. They play sports in their free time. They scream on roller coasters. They shop in malls and eat pizza.

It is the highly curated and deeply misleading version of North Korea that its leader, Kim Jong-un, wants the world to see as he pushes his agenda at home and abroad. Mr. Kim has repeatedly called on his people to aspire to more “international” and “modern” standards, while at the same time trying to persuade other nations that North Korea can live in peace, as long as they let it keep its nuclear weapons.

The social media campaign is a far cry from the old, grainy propaganda footage of his father and grandfather’s generation where North Koreans toiled under red flags or cheered at military parades filled with anti-American slogans. Its official propaganda at home has long helped cement an image of an all-powerful regime ready to take on its rivals, replete with patriotic songs, xenophobic diatribes and images of goose-stepping soldiers and missiles soaring through smoke and flame.

The best-known practitioner in the genre is the North’s legendary anchorwoman, Ri Chun-hee, a “labor hero.” She melts with emotions while ​delivering news about Mr. Kim and his forebears who ruled before him, but can launch into strident spiels when attacking her nation’s enemies with what North Koreans call her “steel-grinding voice.”

Now, young, cheerful women like Un A are promoting friendlier aspects of the country, especially its showpiece capital, Pyongyang. They take viewers inside restaurants, grocery stores, the renovated metro and even the well-furnished home of a middle-class family. They sometimes speak in English, providing subtitles in English, Chinese or German.

Despite the new, upbeat packaging, it still has the undercurrent of reverence to the regime. The women, smartly dressed in crisp blazers with the air of television journalists, usually wear the lapel pin — featuring images of Mr. Kim’s father and grandfather — that all North Koreans must wear to show their loyalty.

In an episode uploaded last Friday, young people celebrate “Youth Day” in Pyongyang, dancing and singing along in an outdoor concert. Under blinding beams of light that call to mind western rock concerts, performers display K-pop dance moves as they sing about “the fatherland” and “our dear general,” Mr. Kim.

“The idea is to create North Korea’s image as a normal country​, make foreigners believe that it is another country where people live ordinary lives,” said Kang Dong-wan, an expert on the North Korean media at Dong-A University in South Korea.

The new propaganda follows Mr. Kim’s efforts to modernize his country and operate on the world stage with leaders like President Trump. Abandoning tradition, Mr. Kim ditched the Mao jacket and the rostrum and delivered his annual New Year’s address last year from a club chair in his book-lined study, wearing a Western suit and tie. Two months later, he instructed his propagandists to stop “mystifying” him, saying that he wanted to appeal to his people as “a human” and “comrade.”

Now, social media is giving North Korea a “low-cost and effective means” to disseminate its propaganda, said Cheong Seong-chang, a longtime North Korea researcher at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

Dozens of channels on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and other social media, as well as on Chinese platforms like Weibo and Bilibili, carry North Korean propaganda footage. Many of the channels are thought to be operated by Mr. Ri’s department. In the Twitter account linked to the Echo of Truth YouTube channel, (and later banned)​, Un A portrays herself as an “antiwar, peace advocate” who provides “unbiased news” about North Korea.

These channels dutifully replay old propaganda footage made for the home audience in the North, like the online version of the memoirs of Kim Il-sung, Mr. Kim’s grandfather and the founder of North Korea. But they also provided rare peeks into how Mr. Kim’s modernization drive has changed the lifestyle and cityscape of Pyongyang. The elites living there visit Western-style cafes and fast-food restaurants, perusing menus on electronic tablets. They pay with cash cards and use home-delivery services.

Such abundance isn’t available outside the capital. The United States estimates that about 60 percent of North Koreans don’t have enough to eat this year.

In My Hero, a segment about Un A’s grandfather, a veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War, she identifies herself as “an ordinary Korean girl from an ordinary family.”

Then she launches into a monologue hewing relentlessly to the grand theme of all North Korean propaganda — how the Kim family liberated Koreans from the yoke of Japanese colonialists, repelled American invaders in the Korean War and made North Koreans safe once and for all by developing a nuclear deterrent.

“We don’t have to wander around in search for a shelter, we don’t have to bend knees pleading for peace, and we don’t have to run from gunfire,” she says.

She does not mention that the war was started by the North’s invasion of South Korea and was halted in a stalemate after costing millions of lives.

“She is another parrot repeating the messages from the Workers’ Party,” said Shim Jin-sup, a retired psychological warfare officer of the South Korean military.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/world/asia/north-korea-kim-jong-un-propaganda.html