North Korea Takes Credit for Family Reunions and Uses Them for Domestic Propaganda

This is really not a surprise at all because the truth about how these reunions came about to stop the ROK’s propaganda broadcasts is not something that the Kim regime can have the average North Korean learn about:

When it comes to news, the two countries could hardly be more different, as evidenced by Wednesday’s papers.

South Korea has more than 100 newspapers and even more online news outlets, and South Koreans are constantly on their smart phones checking the latest headlines.

In the North, however, there’s the state-run wire service, the Korean Central News Agency, the official TV station, Korean Central Television and the main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmum. And all of them feature a heavy diet of Kim Jong Un news.

But what was reported about the reunions also differed sharply.

South Korean outlets focused on the personal stories of the separated families, especially on the reunion of Lee Soon-gyu, who got to see her husband Oh In Se for the first time since 1950, when she was 19 and six months pregnant.

But North Korean state media used the occasion to trumpet their “socialist system” and the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un.

“Those from the north told their separated families and relatives from the south about the fact that they and their families are enjoying a happy and worthwhile life in the Korean-style socialist system,” KCNA reported.

Uriminzokkiri, a Web site affiliated with North Korea, also ran with the same message about how great life is in Kim Jong Un’s socialist paradise.

And of course, North Korea took the credit for the reunions happening at all (only scant mention of the South Korean Red Cross, which did the organizing, or the fact that these reunions happened so Kim Jong Un could stop potentially destabilizing broadcasts from the South.)  [The Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.