The comic books that brainwash North Koreans (propaganda comics for NK kids)

Global Post ^ | 02/26/10 | Geoffrey Cain

[TigerLikesRooster]

The comic books that brainwash North Koreans

Mighty Wing, Pyongyang's equivalent of Mickey Mouse, is a honeybee that confronts a swarm of capitalist wasps.

By Geoffrey Cain — Special to GlobalPost

Published: February 26, 2010 07:20 ET

SEOUL, South Korea — Heinz Insu Fenkl, a literature professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, has cracked one secret to understanding the bizarre regime of North Korea: by reading its comic books.

The academic, who refers to himself as an American-Korean, spends hours in his office tucked away in upstate New York, churning out English translations of the rare books (called "gruim-chaek" in North Korea) after he gathers them at shops in China and from colleagues who travel to Pyongyang.

The plots are often wacky, usually pinning blame on loud-mouthed Americans and opportunist Japanese for cursing their promised land with vice. Most books are leaked to China through the border town of Dandong — a hub of smuggling in North Korean goods. Others end up in a single shop in Tokyo that specializes in hermit-state memorabilia. Still, others mysteriously make their way to university libraries in the U.S.

Of the "gruim-chaek" I’ve located, those published this decade tend to be spy thrillers probably aimed at young boys and teenagers. The cartoonists establish the storylines strictly as moralistic good-versus-evil tales. And almost all the books are printed in black-and-white on poor quality paper.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Go to the source article and see sample NK comics for yourself.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[skeeter]

Give N Korea back to the Japanese.

[SevenofNine]

MONK you better not photoshop this ROFL

Go for it anyway LOL!

[SevenofNine]

I seen better comic book boy Chia Pet and his people don’t have sense of imaginzation LOL!

[max americana]

Nah. I’ll stick with my Captain America comics that tries to brainwash me that Tea Parties are evil..

[Jet Jaguar]

Bump

[vladimir998]

Better yet give North Korea to South Korea.

[Yardstick]

So why are they written in English?

[martin_fierro]

Laaaaaaaaame

[CaptSkip]

So why are they written in English?

Well, DUH...it took 8 posts, and thanks Yardstick...I'm reading along...IN English...these suck, but these are not even for domestic consumption if in English...correct??

[TigerLikesRooster]

I don't know why first two samples are in English. The last two in the sample are in Korean.

[null and void]

So why are they written in English?

I think there might be a hint in the first two paragraphs...

[Yardstick]

Hey, I only read FR for the pictures.

[martin_fierro]

Still, others mysteriously make their way to university libraries in the U.S.

Huh. Go figure. Not like there are any Commies there.

[martin_fierro]

The comic books that brainwash North Koreans

And in a pinch the comics can be eaten for dinner.

[thecodont]

[rbosque]

I’m sure that’s great comfort to those kids while they starve and eat grass soup and fish heads. Maybe they can cross the border into China to ESCAPE N.Korea.

[paudio]

Still, others mysteriously make their way to university libraries in the U.S.

I'm not surprised. This is because most university libraries focus on collecting materials that are anti-US or anti-capitalism.

[usmcobra]

Actually I don’t think they get to eat fish heads.