These notes are from this video. The presention was made my Suzy Kim of Rutgers University.
The presentation, despite being designed for K-12 teachers, provides a succint picture of North Korea as a a recurrent target for misrepresentation in western (especially American) media. In truth, it comes to be shown, North Korea's "othering" by the USA, is a direct consequence of the war fought with the United States over its communist policies.
The video presents four major myths propagated by American (and also probably most western countries) regarding North Korea.
To illustrate the general shortage of information when it comes to North Korea, we are shown an North Korean archeological discovery, that of a cave marked with an "unicorn" symbol that is turned into laughing matter by American news. The point confusion is the word "kirin"(or quirin in chinese, the original from which kirin derived) that gets translated to unicorn, but truly refers to an mythological animal (and later to the giraffe). The engravings on the cave were made around 2000 years ago, but media chose to portray as crazy people that believed in unicorns.
The idea of North Korea being a rogue state is also a consequence from the its war with America, one of the most bloodiest in modern times with a large number of live lost by both sides. The tremendous human loss suffered by North Korea, coupled with the massive bombings and threats of nuclear violence, made them tremendously suspicious ofthe outsite world, and was a sure propellent for the development of the their culture of Juche - that is, self-reliance.
The view of of North Korea as an hermit kingdom is not borne out of thin air. Due to their experiences with the war, they learned to be distrusful of outsiders, but that doesn't mean they are against international ventures. For example, a South Korean automobile company was allowed to set up a factory inside the North Korea (though, it may have closed in 2012); and they set up their first internet cordal cable together with Orascom, an egyptian firm. They also engage in inter-korean trade.
Also, their economic situation is widely exagerated, being much better, as
some research by the United Nations shows, than many countries in Asia. As the
research shows, their rate of malnutrition in children and rate of children
mortality is better than many other Asian countries.
There is also the common view that there is an constant problem of citzens
defecting to South Korea. This, again, is not without basis, but is also not the
full picture. The data that we have, shows that majority left North Korea
during the late ninities, with most of them citing economic reasons as the
deciding factor for leaving.
The nineties where tough time for North Korea, the fall of the Soviet Union,
the death of their only leader thus far, major weather disasters and a famine,
compounded in such a way that brougth the contry to the brink of collapsing.
Is not surprising, then, seeing this level of defectors during this time.
But, most interesting, is that the current total amount of North Korean
defectors (23000 as of 2018), pales in comparison to the amount that defected,
for example, East Germany during the the time of the Berlin Wall. By the time
both germanies where united, there were a total of 4.5 million East German
defectors.
The general western view (especially of the USA) of North Korea is of a totalitarian country where the population, either willingly or by necessity, worshippes bumbling megalomaniac "dear leader" type, in short, a "othering" of it, as if it were some strange land that, by some unfortunate events, became the anti-america, the land of the unfree. This is mostly a fruit of propaganda, since some basic cultural and historical knowledge of North Korea would quickly show the contrary. Even worse is that a lot of the critiscism levied agaist North Korea, that of country where cultists blidly follow a charismatic leader (which is not even charismatic on the first place), can be easily applied to many western countries, even moreso America.
In short, as usual, the United States is far more concerned on selling an idea (here of the evils of a communist society) rather than showing truth, which is not surprising, after all, all that a capitalist can really do is sell.