North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

They’re showing posters of the sinking

A Chinese businessman, recently returned from a trip to the DPRK, snapped a photograph of a poster in Pyongyang with the slogan “Ready to crush any attack with a single blow!” and the image of a KPA soldier smashing a naval vessel in two.  There is no indication when the photograph was taken.  It is also not clear if the poster was created this year (after the March sinking of the Cheonan), or if the Propaganda and Agitation Department is recycling and revising old material.

JoongAng Ilbo, citing Radio Free Asia reports:

A poster spotted in Pyongyang by a visiting Chinese businessman seems to admit North Korea’s role in the sinking of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan in March, according to Radio Free Asia yesterday.

The U.S.-based media outlet reported on its Korean Web site that the poster shows a fully armed soldier cutting a corvette similar to the Cheonan in half with his bare fist. Below the image is the phrase “Deom-byeo-deul-myeon Dan-mae-e!” (“Ready to crush any attack with a single blow!”).

The Cheonan was split in two pieces on March 26 by a torpedo attack from a North Korean submarine, according to a South Korean-led multinational investigating team. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed.

Radio Free Asia based its report on an interview with the businessman, who took the photo of the poster on a recent trip to North Korea. The poster is shown on the RFA Korean Web site. The RFA did not specify the date the photo was taken but, citing unnamed sources, said it was likely the poster was made after the Cheonan sinking to encourage military heroism among North Korean soldiers.

Ideological iconography is not the only trinket travelers to the DPRK have taken back from their recent trips.  An American academic, who completed a trip to the DPRK last week, told an interviewer that Kim Jong Un (Jong-un; Chong-un; Jong Eun) “could make a possible first public appearance” at the 3rd Workers’ Party Conference in September, or one of the Party’s 65th birthday festivities in October.

Information

This article was written on 15 Jul 2010, and is filled under Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean Workers' Party (KWP), Propaganda, Propaganda and Agitation Department.

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