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

[J.Scott Burgeson]

--- On Wed, 5/23/12, jimhoare64 at aol.co.uk <jimhoare64 at aol.co.uk> wrote:
So what we see from KCNA is indeed nasty - but it is not unique.
Well, it is certainly unique in the present historical moment. WWII ended over six decades ago. What other nation-state today deploys such hostile, infantile rhetoric towards its neighbors? I can only think of non-state actors like Al Qaeda, but we all know what kind of organization that is.
The point about reading the original Korean is well-taken, but clearly the DPRK is intent on getting its "message" out into the world in multiple non-Korean languages, as its current revamped Internet offensive attests. In "The Cleanest Race," B.R. Myers argues that DPRK propaganda tends to soften or downplay its frequently racist, or hypernationalistic, message when translated into foreign languages. As Aiden's paper makes clear, such "softening" no longer seems so apparent when perusing official DPRK Web sites these days.
What's going on here? Is this is a sign of some sort of crisis of legitimacy on the part of the new Kim Jong-un regime? Or have the North Koreans belatedly discovered the power of Internet "memes," hoping to have some of them "go viral" if possible? If this discussion is any indication, it seems to be working, doesn't it?
Or, perhaps they're tired of being seen as a sick silly joke by the rest of the world, and have simply decided to double down on the last bad hand they have to play?
--Scott Bug
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20120523/90ca316b/attachment.html>