North Korea is Best Korea?!?!?

                Our FYS class has just started to discuss issues regarding democracy this week, with a comic book project in the works. The Western world has started to take democratic government for granted lately. Western/ Global North democracy is by no means perfect, but what is the complete opposite like?  North Korea, which loves to call itself “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”, works as a complete inverse of modern democracy. It is appalling to see what a nation can get away with when its government is able to completely control the media. Take a look at North Korea’s website http://www.korea-dpr.com/index.html. DPRK even has its own subreddit, /r/pyongyang. North Korea is able to fool its population to the point of saying it "has the world's most advantageous human rights system,"(Oakford quoting a North Korean report). Some, if not most, of their people actually believe that.

            The one who holds and guards the access to information, by definition, defines the message that will be heard. The people of North Korea live closer to George Orwell’s dystopian world of 1984 than any other nation state in existence. “Doublespeak” from 1984 refers to where words are given an opposite definition. War is peace, freedom is slavery, etc. The average North Korean lives in a complete information bubble, secluded from the outside world’s ideas. They actually think they are a democratic state, since they have never known a real one.

            This is a perfect example of how digital media can be a double-edged sword as far as social justice. Another example of this kind of lying or half-truth media can be seen in how the followers of the increasingly polarized major political parties of the United States now believe in completely different news accounts, thanks to the new tools for polarization provided by daily emails and personalized online news. Ultimately, the difference between informing/teaching and propagandizing/indoctrinating a population is determined by the view of the observer. 

Note: I know I have a great little picture that would work with this post somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. I'll add it in later if it turns up.

Works Cited (Courtesy of http://easybib.com/)

"Democratic People's Republic of Korea." Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 

Korean Friendship Association, n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.korea-dpr.com/index.html>.

"Nineteen Eighty-Four." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.

Oakford, Samuel. "North Korea Leads the World in Human Rights, Says Report by North Korea | VICE News." VICE News RSS. The VICE, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.

"Pyongyang | Democratic People's Republic of Korea • /r/Pyongyang." Reddit: The Front Page of the Internet. Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.