Korea Economic Institute of America ACADEMIC PAPER SERIES NOVEMBER 30, 2017 Soap Operas and Socialism: Dissecting Kim Jong-un’s Evolving Policy Priorities through TV Dramas in North Korea By Jean Lee Abstract Introduction Romance, humor, tension — everyone loves a good sitcom, even Much has been written about North Korea’s film industry, the North Koreans. But in North Korea, TV dramas are more than beloved pet project of the late leader Kim Jong-il, who went mere entertainment. They play a crucial political role by serving to extreme lengths — including kidnapping his favorite South as a key messenger of party and government policy. They aim to Korean movie director and actress in 19781 — and lavishing shape social and cultural mores in North Korean society. And in millions on films in order to bring his cinematic fantasies to life.2 the Kim Jong-un era, they act as an advertisement for the “good However, since Kim Jong-il’s death in December 2011, this once- life” promised to the political elite. Through TV dramas, the North mighty arm of North Korea’s propaganda arts appears to have Korean people learn what the regime says constitutes being a languished under the rule of his millennial son Kim Jong-un. In good citizen in Kim Jong-un’s North Korea today: showing loyalty 2011, the last year of Kim Jong-il’s life, state-run film studios to the party, using science and technology to advance national released 10 feature films.3 In contrast, only one film was released interests, thinking creatively in problem-solving, and facing the in 2013 as Kim Jong-un’s new propaganda imperatives began nation’s continued economic hardships with a positive attitude. to take shape,4 while the newly renamed TV Drama Studio5 The soaps and sitcoms reveal a shift in social priorities: Viewers produced three TV movies that year.6 It seems that the son, like are encouraged to put their families first, to nurture and elevate so many in South Korea and the West, prefers TV dramas. the next generation, and to be bold in thinking outside the box Movies have played a key role in furthering propaganda in North rather than settling for the status quo. These contrast with Korea since the time of Kim Il-sung, a strong believer in the themes popular in films made during the Kim Jong-il era, which persuasive power of performance, presented the Democratic emphasized putting the state before family, the military above People’s Republic of Korea’s inaugural film, My Home Village, the party, and conformism over originality. The props in today’s in 1949,7 less than a year after becoming the country’s first dramas, including laptops, drones, fashionable clothes, and gold president. While being groomed to succeed his father, Kim Jong- wristwatches, are prominently positioned in such settings as il served for years as the regime’s chief propagandist, focusing elevators, computer labs, and newly built high-rise apartment on reinforcing Kim family rule — and overseeing the making of buildings. These consumer products are the arsenal of the new movies, sometimes dozens a year.8 “The cinema occupies an generation of Kim Jong-un elites — not the tanks and rifles of his important place in the overall development of art and literature,” father’s era of filmmaking. Kim Jong-il said in 1987 at the opening of the first Pyongyang International Film Festival. “As such, it is a powerful ideological Key Words: Propaganda, media, entertainment, daily life, weapon for the revolution and construction.”9 That year, sports, science, youth, Kim Jong-un. Jean Lee is a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center and a veteran foreign correspondent whose accomplishments include Korea Economic Institute of America opening the Associated Press bureau in Pyongyang. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not 1800 K Street, NW Suite 1010 necessarily reflect the views of any organizations they are affiliated with. This paper is the ninety-fourth in KEI’s Academic Paper Series. As part of this program, KEI commissions and distributes approximately ten papers per year on original Washington, DC 20006 subjects of current interest to over 5,000 Korea watchers, government officials, think tank experts, and scholars around www.keia.org the United States and the world. At the end of the year, these papers are compiled and published in KEI’s On Korea volume. For more information, please visit www.keia.org/aps_on_korea Dissecting Kim Jong-un’s Evolving Policy Priorities through TV Dramas in North Korea 1 ACADEMIC PAPER SERIES North Korea released twenty-four feature films, including the The four dramas in the following sections, released from 2013 Kim Il-sung ode, Star of Korea, all meticulously catalogued, along to 2016, serve as representative examples of entertainment-as- with detailed box office figures for each province and major city, propaganda in the Kim Jong-un era. Each features an archetype in a yearly film yearbook.10 of the populace Kim wants to cultivate: Pyongyang elites, aspiring His son Kim Jong-un took the role of film and TV one step beyond athletes, young military officials, and students. Each drama also mere conveyor of ideology by ordering the state’s directors to serves as an advertisement for the party, promoting the vision of use media to help shape society. “Socialist art and literature help what Kim Jong-un wants to see in his people. people to develop a proper outlook on the revolution and life, to The Family Sitcom: Our Neighbors nurture ennobling and fine mental and moral traits, and to take The two-part TV drama Our Neighbors, released in 2013,14 is as an active part in the revolution and construction,” Kim Jong-un close to a sitcom as you’ll get in North Korea. It’s lighthearted, said at the Seventh Party Congress in May 2016. “They also play full of comic characters and slapstick moments, and placed in a an important leading role in social civilization.”11 familiar setting: an apartment building. Our Neighbors is a loose With each change of leadership, there has been a shift in policy, remake of a 2000 series with the same name,15 but transposed and movies and TV are employed as part of the media campaign to a shiny new setting: the upscale homes of the Changjon Street to help disseminate the new leader’s priorities to his power base. neighborhood in Pyongyang’s downtown Mansudae District. During his rule, Kim Jong-il elevated the status of the military Changjon Street was the first major construction project unveiled to ensure the support of North Korea’s million-man army. during the Kim Jong-un era. In 2011, while Kim Jong-il was still Accordingly, soldiers seeking to win glory on the battlefield in alive, soldiers razed the neighborhood of ramshackle homes order to show loyalty to Kim Jong-il figure prominently in such and replaced them with skyscrapers. Construction continued military films asInheritance, The Lieutenant of Those Days, and A after his death as part of a speed campaign to complete the Day of Training.12 “Movies just showed military life or the loyalty project in time for the April 2012 celebrations marking the 100th of the soldiers for the regime,” one defector, referred to as “Miss anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth. After opening, Changjon Street B,” told Johannes Schönherr in an interview for his book, North quickly became the hottest real estate in town. State media Korean Cinema: A History. “There wasn’t anything interesting in touted its slick new elevators and running water — rarities then, those movies. They didn’t reflect our daily lives, they were not even in Pyongyang — as locals privately wondered how reliable 16 realistic movies.”13 the power and water would be. Kim Jong-un, who was in his twenties when he succeeded his The original residents of Changjon Street were granted father, has focused his attention on the youth of North Korea as apartments in the new high-rises; many of the rest were allocated his future support base. The movies and dramas made during his as political rewards. Photos and footage of Changjon Street rule are written to, appeal to, and address, the next generation. served as advertising for the relatively lavish lifestyle people The characters are young, bright, clever, loyal and sometimes could lead if they worked hard enough for the party to “earn” mischievous — innocuous versions of the leader himself. While a spot in this glossy central neighborhood with a view of the Kim Jong-il’s propagandists sought to portray the people of North bronze statues of the late leaders on Mansu Hill. Our Neighbors, Korea as orphans who should look up to Kim as their surrogate in that sense, served as a massive advertisement for the party, father in the wake of Kim Il-sung’s 1994 death, Kim Jong-un is wrapped up in an engaging family drama. portrayed as their friend and comrade. Under Kim Jong-il, North The residents of Our Neighbors are portrayed as happy, well- Koreans were told to put Kim and the state before their own dressed Pyongyang proletariat: a truck driver, a music teacher, families; today, young North Koreans are being told through a doctor, students, and housewives. Their homes may seem dramas to honor their families and to be resourceful in finding outdated to our eyes but would be luxurious to most North their own ways to contribute to building a stronger society. They Koreans. The apartments are fussily decorated with curtains, are being encouraged to use computers and technology to help clocks, wallpaper, table lamps, flowers and plants — middle-class construct a better future for North Korea — one that includes accoutrement normally out of the reach of most North Koreans.