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

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

Dear friends and colleagues,
 
Much as I defer to my elders (Jim Hoare) and  betters
(Rudiger Frank), I beg to differ on a few points:
 
1. Surely there is no comparison between the odd  casual
one-off jibe - passing remarks, made in conversation -  and
the depth and intensity of the DPRK's  deliberate, planned,
vicious, sustained, and above all avowed ongoing campaign
- all neatly filed as such on KCNA,  as I pointed out - against 
President Lee. These are simply not the same sort of  thing.
 
2. I have been reading DPRK sources (in English) for 44  years.
One becomes well versed in insult and threat, and their ebb  and
flow with the ups and downs North-South relations. But I have 
never read anything that compares to the  venom of the past 
few months, even before the rat campaign started. (One could 
check this, as I did in part, at least back to 1996 by searching 
on NK-news.net.) How unique is 'unique  enough'?
 
3. There is a broader Methodenstreit involved  here.
While I understand why for political reasons one might  seek
to assimilate the North Korean regime to other cases and  places
- it's normal, it's rational, they're human, it's not really  so strange -
I wonder how far this assists either social science or policy-making.
 
To downplay the DPRK's extreme singularity, shall we  say,
just seems wrong to me. Statistically, it really is an  outlier:
or sui generis, if you will. Of course that still leaves the 
twin challenges of explanation and policy  formulation.
 
But what we are dealing with is in the main truly  exceptional,
is it not? Isn't that where we should start? Otherwise  we
may risk downplaying what makes the DPRK so  distinctive.
 
Aidan FC
 
 
Aidan  Foster-Carter 
Honorary Senior Research  Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds 
University, UK 
E: _afostercarter at aol.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at aol.com)      
_afostercarter at yahoo.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at yahoo.com)    W: _www.aidanfc.net_ 
(http://www.aidanfc.net/)      
W in Korea:  
_http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http://aidanfc.net/index.html_ 
(http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http:/aidanfc.net/index.html) 
.
_________________
 
 
In a message dated 5/24/2012 09:19:09 Romance Daylight Time,  
ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at writes:

Dear Scott,
I don't want to  get political here, but I vaguely remember relatively r
ecent phrases like  "unruly children" (Hillary C.) and "I loathe that guy" 
(George B.). Not very  mature either, I'd say. Besides, since when is a 
comparison across times not  allowed. The argument was that other states have 
applied derogatory rhetoric  at times when they felt that was necessary. NK very 
obviously is in crisis and  feels surrounded by enemies. Not that this would 
justify anything, but it  certainly helps to understand. 
Regarding the internet, of course the  Korean version is also meant for 
foreigners; alas, how many North Koreans  would have regular access? So we can 
(and should)  regard all of NK's internet propaganda as being directed at  
foreigners; assuming this only for the English version makes little sense.  
When Brian wrote about propaganda in Korean, he referred to non-internet  
sources like Chosòn Munhak or all types of sosòl that are usually only  
distributed internally or end up being ignored in the big libraries in South  Korea 
or the West.
As much as I agree that Kim3 has a serious legitimacy  crisis (I wrote a 
few words here: _http://38north.org/2012/05/rfrank050912/_ 
(http://38north.org/2012/05/rfrank050912/) ), I do not think that the  current outbursts are 
unique enough to be counted as additional evidence. I  remember that very 
similar verbal derailments were more or less common until  the first 
inter-Korean summit in 2000, and then were picked up again from  mid-2008. I agree, 
though, that the NKs have recently stepped up their efforts  at making better 
(and at technically moe professional) use of the new media.  Just look at all 
the new websites by KCNA and Rodong Sinmun including photos,  videos and 
PDFs. 
I am not saying we shouldn't be worried. With a  young leader still 
struggling for legitimacy, making heavy ideological  mistakes along that way, and 
in the end betting on performance-based  legitimacy through economic 
progress, the chance for conflict on the Korean  peninsula is now bigger than last 
year. So it indeed does make sense watching  their propaganda closely. I just 
don't think what we have seen so far is  unique enough; I thus agree with  
Jim.
Best,
Rudiger





on Donnerstag, 24. Mai 2012 at  03:06 you wrote:


--- 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




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