North Koreans Have Conflicted Views About What Is Depicted In South Korean Media

Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this Andrei Lankov article that discusses what North Koreans really think about the South Korean dramas and movies that has infiltrated their country:

The picture of the South within North Korea is a bit more complex, though. While admiring the almost unbelievable prosperity of the South, viewers are also exposed to many of the negative aspects of South Korean society.

I just came across an interesting aspect to this trend. My North Korean friend, a smart woman in her 30s, once said to me: “there are some violent gangs in North Korea, but there are much fewer gangs than there are here (i.e. South Korea).” I was taken aback by this statement, since South Korea is, actually, a very peaceful place with remarkably low level of violent crime. However, it soon became clear that my friend’s knowledge of Seoul’s “gang life” was based almost exclusively on South Korean action movies and TV dramas that she had watched (and that frequently depict street violence).

Indeed, a number of North Korean viewers have come to the conclusion that South Korea must be a very violent place where police shoot suspected criminals more or less at random, and where massive fights between rival gangs are almost as common as traffic jams in rush hours.  [NK News]

You can read the rest at the link, but this same phenomenon is not limited to just North Koreans.  I have seen this same thought process happen with South Koreans that have traveled to the US for the first time.  Certain urban areas of the US does have a serious crime problem, but in the vast majority of the country you are not going to see gang violence, shoot outs, and explosions like what are depicted in Hollywood movies.