North Korea

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

John A. Lent; John A. Lent

Published:

2025

Publisher:

University Press of Mississippi

Chapter 6 discusses both comics/cartoons and animation of North Korea, using the limited information available to Westerners. The timeline of this chapter commences in 1945 with independence and the splitting of the peninsula into two separate countries. The manner by which comics art was dealt was closely linked to the policies of the three-generation Kim dynasty and their Juche philosophy. Early on, satire periodicals, particularly, <italic>Hwalsal</italic>, followed Soviet models; however, in short time, they went their separate ways. Kurimchaek (comics) are published by sixteen companies, six of which account for eighty percent of the total. The books are closely monitored with ideological mission towering over art concerns. The chapter provides synopses of different stories that fit into usual genres of comics (anti-spy and war, and to a lesser degree, fables, adventure, current affairs, and history), as well as unique ones (e.g., “adapt to the circumstances” and “North Korea as world savior”). Animation is led by the SEK studio and follows the ideology pattern of kurimchaek. Offshore and inter-Korean peninsula animation is carried out.

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