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North Korean policymakers have always invested significant efforts in the production, dissemination, and promotion of creative writings carrying heavy didactic messages. According to official propaganda, the North Korean masses widely read and appreciate these texts. However, the actual status of books in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains unclear. The present article attempts to assess this status based on a corroborative and critical analysis of surveys of North Korean defectors, testimonies of foreign visitors to the DPRK, and written materials. The author outlines the major factors influencing North Korean mass readership in both positive and negative ways, describing specifics of the North Korean culture of recreational reading and investigates the correspondence of this culture with the officially promoted attitude to books.
Key Words: North Korean culture, North Korean defectors, North Korean propaganda
I.Introduction: Book-Centered Cultural Politics of the DPRK
In an era when mass communication is developing at a rapid rate, the role of books as a propaganda medium remains significant. As Jowett and O'Donnell note, books are "limited in their circulation and seldom have a mass audience," being forced "to compete with the more spontaneous and accessible visual media." At the same time, books have a potential "to develop specific ideas in-depth." "Throughout history, books have played a pivotal role in the shaping of ideas and attitudes on a large scale certainly beyond their actual primary readership" (Jowett and O'Donnell, 2006: 105-106).
A fervent attitude toward books has always been at the center of the DPRK cultural policy. This partially reflects the Confucian traditions of Korea with its cult of the written word, the high social status of the literate, and the didactic nature of literature.1 The North Korean official attitude to books also betrays Soviet cultural influence, which followed the tradition of mass enlightenment and the cult of books once promoted by the Russian intelligentsia. North Korean propaganda widely operates under the slogan ChisikUn kwangmyong, musikUn amhUk ("Learning is light, ignorance is darkness") which is a direct translation of the Russian proverb Uchenie svet, neuchenie t'ma.
While both North Korean and Soviet modernization projects selectively utilized traditional values and symbols for the purposes of development and technological advancement (Hoffman, 2003: 4, Kautsky, 1968), there were pragmatic political motives behind the...