North Korean state media reacts to Donald Trump's victory
I was scrolling through my friends feed last night, and I saw that noted North Korea expert Andrei tttkkk Lankov posted about the least thing I expected - at how DPRK state media responded to Trump winning the election.
Turned out, the fact that they responded at all was pretty surprising.
The original post is short enough that I'm going to translate it in its entirety.
Thing is, the way international news is delivered in the North Korean press is an fascinating topic in on itself. One of the most interesting peculiarities - a large number of reports about natural disasters happening around the world (almost every flood in Bangladesh is mentioned in Rodong Sinmun [the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea], and the unwillingness to talk about political killings where the victims are major political figures.
The other peculiarity is the tendency to delay, for quite a while, reports of important events that directly impact DPRK's interests. For example, the reports of the results of South Korean elections where a candidate that Pyongyang didn't like were delayed for a while.
Well, this time, things worked really amazingly. [On November 17 local time], Rodong Sinmun mentioned that Donald Trump became the new president of United States. Yesterday. And, by the way, in an an article dealing with South Korean affairs.
Now, what on Earth could it possibly mean?
Turned out, the fact that they responded at all was pretty surprising.
The original post is short enough that I'm going to translate it in its entirety.
Thing is, the way international news is delivered in the North Korean press is an fascinating topic in on itself. One of the most interesting peculiarities - a large number of reports about natural disasters happening around the world (almost every flood in Bangladesh is mentioned in Rodong Sinmun [the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea], and the unwillingness to talk about political killings where the victims are major political figures.
The other peculiarity is the tendency to delay, for quite a while, reports of important events that directly impact DPRK's interests. For example, the reports of the results of South Korean elections where a candidate that Pyongyang didn't like were delayed for a while.
Well, this time, things worked really amazingly. [On November 17 local time], Rodong Sinmun mentioned that Donald Trump became the new president of United States. Yesterday. And, by the way, in an an article dealing with South Korean affairs.
Now, what on Earth could it possibly mean?