[It's a tall order.
Living standards in Pyongyang, the capital, are relatively high, with new shops
and restaurants catering to a growing middle class. But U.N. officials' reports
detail harsh conditions elsewhere in North Korea: up to 200,000 people
estimated to be languishing in political prison camps, and two-thirds of the
country's 24 million people facing regular food shortages.]
By Foster
Klug | Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)
— The outside world
focuses on the messages of doom and gloom from North Korea: bombastic threats of nuclear war, fantasy videos of U.S. cities
in flames, digitally altered photos of leader Kim Jong Un guiding military drills. But back home, North Koreans get a
decidedly softer dose ofpropaganda: Kim portrayed as a young, energetic leader, a
people person and family man.
Mixed in with the images
showing Kim aboard a speeding boat on a tour of front-line islands, or handing
out commemorative rifles to smartly saluting soldiers, are those of Kim and his
wife clapping at a dolphin show or linking arms with weeping North Korean
children.
The pictures can look
odd or obviously staged to outsiders. But they're carefully crafted propaganda
meant to give North Koreans an image of a country governed by a leader who is
as comfortable overseeing a powerful military as he is mingling with the
people.
Analysts say the images
also hint at something that often gets lost amid the threatening rhetoric:
North Korea's supreme commander isn't an all-powerful, isolated monarch who can
govern without considering his people's approval. Kim is still busy building his
reputation at home.
"Even dictatorships
respond to public opinion and public pressure," said John Delury, a North
Korea analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. "He's expected to pay
attention to and make improvements in the common people's standard of living.
They've put that promise out in their domestic propaganda."
It's a tall order.
Living standards in Pyongyang, the capital, are relatively high, with new shops
and restaurants catering to a growing middle class. But U.N. officials' reports
detail harsh conditions elsewhere in North Korea: up to 200,000 people
estimated to be languishing in political prison camps, and two-thirds of the
country's 24 million people facing regular food shortages.
When it comes to North
Korean propaganda, much of the world focuses on the series of outlandish videos
uploaded to the country's YouTube channel and government website, largely for
foreign consumption. In one fantasy, missiles rain down on a burning American
city while an instrumental version of "We Are the World" plays in the
background. In another, President Barack Obama and U.S. troops burn.
But what most North
Koreans see on state TV is a different propaganda message: Kim Jong Un bending
down to receive flowers from children, Kim visiting families living in rustic
homes on front-line islands, Kim mobbed by gushing female soldiers.
As with any propaganda
or PR, the images are carefully staged. And many make foreign news headlines
only when experts and photo editors discover that North Korea is digitally
altering them. For instance, in a picture distributed recently by state media,
troops and hovercraft land on a barren, snow-dappled beach. Experts say some of
the multiple hovercraft have been copied and pasted into the image.
But North Korea's
propaganda makers aren't concerned about the criticism abroad to their
heavy-handed photo editing. "These efforts are aimed more at an
unsophisticated domestic peasant audience than those of us who are more
discerning," said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think
tank in Hawaii.
The caring domestic
persona being built for Kim by his image specialists is aided by his wife, Ri
Sol Ju.
She is young and
glamorous, a chic and smiling presence at his side in many of the country's
propaganda images. The couple is often photographed at amusement parks,
nurseries, factory tours and concerts.
"It's a more
complex kind of image he has as a leader," Delury said. "The basis of
his legitimacy domestically has to do with these other, non-military
things."
The propaganda machine
in North Korea also worked to build up a caring image for Kim's father, the
late Kim Jong Il. He doggedly appeared at tours of factories,
farms and military posts. But while Kim Jong Un puts his wife front and center
and is a relaxed presence on camera, his father was stiff in photos and
secretive about his family life.
North Korea takes pains
to select and sometimes alter photos so its leaders appear in the best light
possible, said Seo Jeong-nam, a North Korean propaganda expert at Keimyung
University in South Korea.
For example, past
propaganda specialists were careful not to pick photos that showed the large
lump on the back of the neck of Kim's grandfather, North Korean President Kim
Il Sung, Seo said. When Kim Jong Il was alive, North Korean photographers tried
to make him look taller in photos than he actually was, often positioning him
slightly in front of others, Seo said.
As for Kim Jong Un, Seo
said North Korea's propaganda mill chooses photos that show off his strong
resemblance to his grandfather, who still is depicted on state TV as the loving
father of the nation, surrounded by children and adoring citizens.
___
Associated Press writer
Sam Kim contributed to this story. Follow Klug at www.twitter.com/APKlug and
Kim at www.twitter.com/samkim_ap.
