One of many propaganda voices I check in with occasionally is the website of the Korean Central News Agency, the English- and Spanish-language voice of totalitarian North Korea.
It's an odd pastiche of 1950s Communist pronouncements, such as "Rodong Sinmun Calls for Realizing Great Alliance against Conservative Forces" and "Koreans Urged to Turn Out in Struggle for National Reunification." The actual text is even more reminiscent of the 50s:
Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- Greater efforts are being directed to increasing coal production in the coal-mining industry in the DPRK. Officials of the Ministry of Coal Industry go deep among workers to concentrate efforts on coal production, each taking in charge of big coal mines including the Anju Area Coal Complex.
In particular they are launching the mass technical innovation drive, intensifying creative cooperation with technicians and colliers.
The Pukchang, Onsong, Tokchon, Kujang and Chonnae Area Coal Complexes have introduced the advanced methods to coal production, registering big achievements every day.
They are paying the primary attention to securing favorable cutting faces by giving precedence to tunneling and are taking thoroughgoing measures to supply materials, facilities and accessory parts including props to collieries in time.
Innovations are being reported from the Ryongdung Coal Mine, February 8 Jikdong Youth Coal Mine and Chonsong Youth Coal Mine and other coal mines.
The coal mines are widely organizing an inter-pit tunneling emulation and other forms of socialist emulation, thus boosting colliers' enthusiasm for production.
Thanks to the devotion of the coal producers in a pilot for building an economic power, larger amount of coal is being provided to the thermal power plants.
I don't know what inter-pit tunneling emulation is, nor how it's a kind of socialist emulation, but there you go.
This is not a translation problem, but for that fact that they're not just translating into English, but into English as spoken by Stalinists.
However, a release titled "U.S. Arms Build-Up for War against DPRK under Fire" told me something I didn't know -- a squadron of F-22 Raptors is being deployed to Kadena Air Base in Japan. The official Air Force news site confirms this, saying that this is the first overseas deployment for the Raptor. I hadn't realized the Raptor was ready for action.
If you read enough of this stuff, you'll see bits like this:
Yehia Zakaria Khairullah, chairman of the Egyptian Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea, said at the seminar that the army and the people of the DPRK single-mindedly united around Kim Jong Il, the Songun brilliant commander, have registered great successes in building a great prosperous powerful socialist nation last year. He expressed belief that the DPRK would achieve fresh success in their efforts to bring about prosperity this year, too, thanks to the Songun policy.
If you're confused, that's okay.
"Juche", meaning "main body", is the official name for former leader Kim Il Sung's version of Stalinism with all the serial numbers filed off. Theoretically, the chief tenets of Juche are:
- Independence of the people in thought and politics, self-sufficiency in economics and defense
- Policy must reflect the will of the masses
- Methods used to enact policy must be tailored to the specific country
- The key work of policy is making people into better Communists, including training absolute loyalty to the leadership
If you were reading closely, you'll notice that the policy requires absolute obedience and freedom of thought. You can imagine which one has won out over time. Also, Juche has never quite managed self-sufficiency for North Korea, which was continuously supported economically from its inception until the Soviet collapse in 1991, at which point the first famines struck. North Korea now receives outside assistance from the very countries it preaches Juche to, which is rather like taking economic advice from the person you're giving debt counseling to.
"Songun" is North Korea's current "military first" policy, which has very little to do with the revolution and a lot to do with keeping Kim Jong Il in power. As long as the military isn't going hungry, it matters very little to the people in charge that little North Korean kids are growing up blond from malnutrition.
You can read more about the history and current practice of Juche on its Wikipedia page.