Radio Free Asia (RFA) may have suspended the production and broadcasting of programs into North Korea, but Pyongyang is keeping quiet about it, including in its propaganda messaging.
According to multiple Daily NK sources in the northern regions of North Korea, including North Hamgyong and North Pyongan provinces, North Korea has abstained from propaganda messaging like “The enemy broadcasts have collapsed,” referring to RFA’s broadcasting suspension.
North Korea has not intensified crackdowns on radio, shortwave broadcasts or recordings, either. Post offices are simply conducting their regular annual inspections, while neither security officials, the police nor the Socialist Patriotic Youth League have launched special crackdowns.
Regarding this matter, North Korean domestic media have said nothing, and no new materials, such as study materials for neighborhood watch units, have been produced.
This stands in sharp contrast to past practice.
From “psychological warfare” warnings to strategic silence
For example, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper was extremely wary of U.S. broadcasts into North Korea, calling them “ideological and cultural infiltrations” in May 2018. At the time, it slammed RFA as a psychological warfare tool, citing the examples of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe and how the United States used them to destroy European socialism after World War II.
It also called on the public to remain ideologically on alert against the broadcasts, urging the nation to “boldly smash the U.S. imperialists’ ideological and cultural infiltrations.”
Having previously been extremely guarded about RFA, calling it the “front line of psychological warfare,” the North Korean authorities have turned to a “strategy of silence” since RFA suspended broadcasting. While North Korea could trumpet this as a “defeat for U.S. imperialism” or an “ideological victory” for Pyongyang, the authorities appear to be taking a contrary approach through consistent silence.
Professor Kang Dong Wan of South Korea’s Dong-A University told Daily NK, “If North Korea were to advertise RFA’s suspension broadly, it could spread awareness that there was such a broadcast in the first place.” North Korea appears to have calculated that “silence is also propaganda,” he said.
“With it looking like RFA itself will disappear, North Korea will likely focus on blocking the potential entry of outside information through SD cards, mobile phones and other methods,” he predicted.
Meanwhile, upon learning of RFA’s suspension, many North Koreans have expressed regret, saying “There’s nothing to listen to now,” and that it’s “regretful.” Some have taken solace in the authorities’ easing of their crackdowns, but those who received news of the outside world through RFA still feel a sense of loss.
“People say they feel more at ease since crackdowns have eased nowadays,” the source said. “However, people who steadily listened to RFA are despondent, saying they have ‘nothing to live for.’”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
