As North Korea's supreme leader makes a show of abandoning all efforts at a formal detente with Seoul, state media in Pyongyang this week published a series of patriotic posters targeting the United States and its treaty ally South Korea.
The government-sanctioned artwork—a callback to America's own wartime propaganda work—was produced to "powerfully arouse all officials, party members and working people to carrying out the important tasks set forth at the historic policy speech made by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un," the official Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday.
Long-time observers say 2024 could be a dangerous year for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, with Kim's isolated regime in the North repeatedly launching ballistic missiles and experimenting with new military technologies in moves that appeared to test American resolve in the region.
Last week, the reclusive country's rubber-stamp congress announced it was abolishing three agencies related to inter-Korean cooperation, all but ending any possibility of reconciliation with the South Korea in the process.
The format of North Korea's new posters was reminiscent of early Soviet and some present-day Chinese socialist propaganda. The vibrant images and hyper-nationalistic themes have remained largely unchanged in Pyongyang since the 1953 armistice put a halt to—but did not officially end—the Korean War that split the peninsula along the 38th parallel north.
In the artworks, citizens were encouraged to assist in the country's economic development and to remain faithful to the state and its defense. A recurring theme is also the U.S. and South Korea's shared role as the regime's enemies.
"Let us destroy the U.S. imperialists and the clan of the Republic of Korea without mercy!" said one especially jingoistic poster, which depicted a tank carrying the North Korean flag plowing over its enemies and warplanes flying into battle overhead.
Another poster displayed the message: "Great spurs to making full preparations for all-people resistance!" and showed a soldier joined by what appeared to be a student, an engineer, a laborer, a revolutionary partisan and a farmer in a whole-of-society war effort.
A third propaganda artwork declared: "National defense is the greatest patriotism!" and depicted saluting uniformed service members.
In a fourth, an army officer was shown next to soldiers wielding automatic rifles and a rocket launcher. "For the prosperity and development of our Republic and the promotion of the wellbeing of our people!" its text read.
A message of economic dynamism, which belied the destitution faced by most North Koreans, said: "Let us give further momentum to the trend of development of the national economy!"
"Let us strongly promote the 'regional development 20×10 policy!'" proclaimd one poster, a reference to Kim's plan, announced by state media last week, to build industrial centers in 200 cities and counties within a decade in order to stimulate the country's aid-dependent command economy.
The North Korean embassy in Beijing did not immediately return Newsweek's request for comment before publication.
North-South relations have deteriorated since the fragile peace of the late 2010s, when the countries engaged in limited dialogue, agreed to host a joint future Olympics and signed a key military agreement to reduce tensions along the military demarcation line.
The situation today is at its most unstable in decades, according to analysts at 38 North, part of the Stimson Center think tank, who concluded in a report earlier this month that Kim had "made a strategic decision to go to war."
Their alarm came from the Pyongyang's repeated launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2023—and its threats to lob nuclear-armed warheads at America. Late last year, the pivotal 2018 military pact to deescalate tensions was left in tatters after the North and the South both launched their first spy satellite into Earth orbit.
This month, the North fired live artillery shells near its maritime border with the South, and Seoul conducted joint military drills with Washington and Tokyo.
Last week, while threatening to end all probability of unification on the peninsula, Kim called for a modification of the North Korean constitution to label the South its "principal enemy."
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About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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