WORK HARD FOR THE KIMS! An introduction to North Korean history, ideology, and culture through the country’s propaganda posters

by Scott Fisher

The goal of this brief book is to use North Korea’s unique, occasionally beautiful, often threatening propaganda posters to introduce and highlight the country’s history, ideology, and culture. This is not an art critique or an examination of color and painting - the goal is to provoke thought and conversation about one of the world’s most well-known but least understood countries.

As the book unfolds, we’ll see that Pyongyang’s near total control of its domestic information environment is built around four main propaganda themes: the Kim family leadership, the bounty and joy offered by life in the North, unification with the South, and a combination of anti-Americanism with military-focused ethno-nationalism. These four themes reveal what is most important to the North’s rulers, while the censorship of outside narratives competing against Pyongyang’ official worldview reveals a vulnerability for outside policymakers anxious to find a new tool for affecting change in the North.

87 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2014

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I love the concept and found many of the images fascinating, this book fails to deliver on its promise. It's rife with spelling and typographical errors, which already irritates me plenty, but its most significant failing is its inexplicable reluctance to translate the posters' slogans. This seems obvious, but many people who might want to read this book don't speak Korean (including me); every poster should have been translated and explained, not just every fourth or fifth image.

A note on the kindle edition: I don't recommend it. This book is really only worthwhile for its images, and they're hard to see (and poorly formatted) on the kindle.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great explanation of some of the propaganda posters in North Korea. A great read for those who want to know more about the country and the situation there but have yet to learn much about it. Can be repetitive at points, but only to explain important concepts. I wish this book was a little longer, I wanted to learn even more.

[Chelsea Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

The posters are great sources to acquire an understanding of N. Korea during Kims' dictatorships. However, the writing is subpar-filled with editorial errors and repetitive ideas that are just reworded to trick you into thinking he is saying something different.