[KS] Rhetoric of Hatred: the cornucopia of Korean 4LW's and the English polish..

Wed May 23 06:52:13 EDT 2012

In fact, one can observe significant differences in the use of abusive rhetoric not only between North Korea (the "East") and a somewhat simplified notion of the "West" but also between the various "rogues states" that George W. Bush (in)famously dubbed the Axis of Evil. Both North Korea and Iran use English-language websites to express their vehement dislike of certain foreign powers, but the terminology used by KCNA, and the topics covered by said news agency, are far more bizarre and redundant than what one can find in the English version of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) or in "Tehran Times," even though His Excellency Ahmadinejad is hardly a novice in the fine art of public insults and abuse. What is most peculiar in KCNA propaganda is the sheer amount of un-newsworthy items, such as empty phrases and wholly invented events (which occasionally alternate with regular business ads, with fax numbers and e-mail addresses carefully added). In
 this respect, IRNA is far more "professional." Maybe this is why its condolences on the occasion of the demise of the Dear Leader were limited to two (2) sentences_which was hardly the case in KCNA.

Balazs Szalontai

--- On Wed, 23/5/12, Kye C Kim <kc.kim2 at gmail.com> wrote:

So, ultimately how much does this rhetoric of hatred add to or subtract from that universal 
consciousness that in toto constitute what is our life, even after we deduct the cost of the
band-aid....

Sorry to be directing a private response to your interesting posts.  Following is just too much

of a rushed jotting to post to the list.  Nonetheless, I wanted to share some thoughts
prompted by your interesting comments as well as the questions they prompted, some of which were

answered by Mr Hoare's response...)

These are indeed disturbing in the extreme?  Blood curdling? Shocking? Somebody help me up?

And what fascinating detective work, using frequency, intensity, and time-line to divine what might

be going on in the heads and hearts of the NK elite.

For all the rhetoric of hatred coming out of NK, it is precisely this cornucopia of linguistic infelicities
that presumably are not being 'polished' by the native English speakers that capture the readers.

So, is there a final polisher who is overriding the earlier polishing of the native speakers or are the
native polishers simply pulled out of the loop in the final version that ultimately becomes the face
of NK in the world media?  Are they aware of the effect of "oddness" and "infelicity" produced by 

the rhetoric they are pushing out to the rest of the world in English?  Could it be that this is precisely
the "effect" they are after?

West is not without its own inventory of invectives and choice curse words and yet such are almost

never a part of the public discourse, and such phrasing would certainly be deemed "inappropriate" 
by every standard.  Today even the "Axis of Evil" statement would be viewed as an "extreme" 

expression and "ultra-extreme" rhetoric by the West.

Is one to conclude that the language of "discourse/rhetoric" is very much one of East is East and West is West,
with the twain meeting being nearly impossible.  This is how it would seem to stand.

Now, Korean does have a modern tradition of "dressing down your opponents," even "a separate
and very theatrical language of provocation," most often seen in staged version of confrontation between

generals and gang leaders, where exchanges of belittlements and denigrations do achieve certain
rhetorical artfulness.  

But these recognizably Korean rhetoric of hatred/provocations do not necessarily degrade to the 

less than artful and infelicitous blusters we find in the NK English versions.  

I guess the question is, "Is this possibly the result of  BAD TRANSLATION/POLISHING?" 

Several other questions immediately pop into mind: The Korean version of tough-talking is today best

seen in the West in the WWE(World Wrestling Entertainment) where the rhetoric of challenge-belittlement
achieve their modern heights through the modern-day gladiators/rhetors on modern coliseums.

Even closer, the living rooms of the West can revel in the near artistry of the malediction of  Debra Morgan

(http://dexter.wikia.com/wiki/Debra_Morgan) and Lieutenant Doakes(http://dexter.wikia.com/wiki/James_Doakes)

weekly while following the adventures Dexter, our favorite angel of death.

This is very different from the rhetoric of hatred we are seeing here.  Does this have history?  In the English
as it circulates in the world media, is the origin even possibly English?  I could almost imagine that such

rhetoric of hatred was very rampant, Japanese directed against Americans, and the reverse...Has it developed
and evolved? Is there directionality?

Another question is: Are the Western students of Korean cued into the world of Korean malediction as part

of their language training?  We can call to mind the near-international-race-incident that happened because of
the misinterpretation, according to one account, of all to common "네가 ...." 

JoobaiLee

5/21/2012

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 8:32 PM, Kent Davy <kentdavy at me.com> wrote:

Here's an interview with Paul White:

http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/

On May 21, 2012, at 5:18 AM, jimhoare64 at aol.co.uk wrote:

I agree that KCNA did not seem to use polishers, The FLPH laid off the remaining foreign staff while we were there in 2001-02 and thereafter seemed to relay on Koreans - no doubt this explains the odd language.
But even when they did employ foreign staff, the Korean staff would often override what the native speakers had suggested.

On a slightly different note, what use would one make of photographs of such people if one had them? 

Jim Hoare

-----Original Message-----

From: Afostercarter <Afostercarter at aol.com>

To: koreanstudies <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>

CC: jsburgeson <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>

Sent: Sun, 20 May 2012 18:34

Subject: Re: [KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang

Dear friends and colleagues,

Scott raises the question of native speakers of English 
(etc)

as copy-editors - also known as 'polishers' - in North 
Korea.

Having in the past recruited at least two people for such 
roles

- Michael Harrold, and the late Andrew Holloway http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang.html

- this is a topic about which I'm curious, but not 
up-to-date.

Michael, Andrew and others were hired by the DPRK

Foreign Languages Publishing House (FLPH). 
The texts

they worked on were mostly books, as best I 
recall.

By contrast, I've never heard of KCNA using 
foreigners.

My guess would be that they don't, given some 
stilted

expressions and the odd mistake.

For example, surely if a native English speaker 
were

involved they would have recommended a different 
word

- be it technical or colloquial - for "bottom hole" in 
the 

third sentence of the caption to the 
cartoon below.

There are other linguistic infelicities here as 
well,

not least the title. Either tear apart or tear to 
pieces,

but not tear apart to pieces.

(On the substance: In my article I likened 
doing the research

for this to wading through sewage. You can see 
why.)

- But back to polishers. FLPH still uses at least one, but he 

lives in Beijing. See an interesting interview with 
Paul White

at Tad Farrell's ever more indispensable 
NKNews:

http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/

Kind regards

Aidan FC

Aidan 
Foster-Carter

Honorary Senior Research 
Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com     afostercarter at yahoo.com   W: www.aidanfc.net    

**************

From http://www.kcna.kp/2mb/eindex.html (cartoon 
5)

Tear Apart Lee Myung Bak to 
Pieces

The dirty hairy body of 
rat-like Myung Bak is being stabbed with bayonets. One is right in his neck and 
the heart has already burst open. Blood is flowing out of its filthy bottom 
hole. This is not too much to Lee as he committed only sordid acts of flunkeyism 
and treachery. And this is not all. It is the strong will and pledge of the army 
and people of the DPRK to tear apart Lee Myung Bak to 
pieces.

_______________

In a message dated 5/20/2012 11:27:17 GMT Daylight Time, 
jsburgeson at yahoo.com writes:

      Thanks for the great article, Aiden! Did you have to put 
        bandaids on your eye-balls after reading so much slashing, violent 
        fulmination? 

Any chance you can dig up photos of some of the foreign devils who 
        copy-edited this stuff in English? One wonders if they have PTSD by now; 
        hopefully they were sharp enough to ask in advance to be paid in 
        soju!

--- On Fri, 5/18/12, Aidan Foster-Carter 
        <afostercarter at aol.com> wrote:

From: 
          Aidan Foster-Carter <afostercarter at aol.com>

Subject: [KS] (no 
          subject)

To: Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws

Date: Friday, May 18, 
          2012, 9:56 AM

Dear friends and colleagues,

Just to let you know that the new issue of Comparative 
          Connections

- the thrice-yearly online journal published by Pacific 
          Forum-CSIS -

includes what I think is the first full account and detailed 
          analysis

in English of North 
          Korea's ongoing bloodthirsty fulminations

against South Korea and especially its 
          President, Lee Myung-bak.

In over 40 years of following North Korea, I've read 
          tons of rich

DPRK invective - but never anything as bizarre and 
          nasty as this.

(They don't much care for Park Geun-hye, either; for all 
          that she

dined with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang less than a decade 
          ago.)

In case of interest, this article is freely available to all 
          at

http://csis.org/files/publication/1201qnk_sk.pdf

The full issue, which as ever also has three further articles 
          on Korea

covering the two Koreas' relations with the US, China 
          and Japan,

can be accessed at http://csis.org/program/comparative-connections

All good wishes

Aidan FC

Aidan 
          Foster-Carter

Honorary 
          Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds 
          University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com     afostercarter at yahoo.com   W: www.aidanfc.net   

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