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North Korea has added more movies and TV shows to its banned list.
But this time, they’re from China, traditionally considered an ally – not from capitalist enemies South Korea or the United States, as is usually the case.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a list of banned Chinese videos,” a resident of the eastern province of South Hamgyong told Radio Free Asia.
The movies or drama series, produced in Hong Kong or mainland China, included titles such as ‘Butterfly Lovers’ and ‘Shanghai Bund,’ he said. These shows have been popular among North Koreans for so long that it is difficult to find someone who has not seen them, he said.
“I was surprised that Chinese movies and TV shows, which I thought were okay to watch, were designated as ‘impure recordings’ and It’s absurd to suddenly label them as such,” he said.
The resident wondered if the ban reflected souring ties with China. He pointed out that the border has not fully reopened to trade between the two countries after it was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The updated list was circulated in late May and early June and included a performance in North Korea by South Korean singer Kim Yeon-ja.
Some videos from Russia and India were also on the banned list, he said.
The decision to ban Chinese films shows that North Korea is taking its “obsession” with preventing foreign influence to a new level, said Bruce Klingner of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation think tank.
“Some experts predicted when Kim Jong-un assumed power that he would implement political and economic reforms,” said Klingner. “Instead, Kim maintained his predecessors' system and imposed even more stringent measures to prevent outside information from leaking in and harsher penalties for violations.”
Chinese influence is less important now that Pyongyang is getting closer to Moscow, Harry Kazianis, the senior director for national security affairs at the Washington-based Center for the National Interest, told RFA.
“North Korea understands that now, having much more economic aid from Russia, at least while the Ukraine war is going, the Kim family can cut off as much Chinese influence as possible and feel no repercussions,” he said.
“Anything Pyongyang can do to isolate its population from the outside world and cement its rule is vital.”
Hush-hush on disputed history
Also on the banned list were some lectures recorded by authorities that suggest China is trying to distort Korean history, residents said.
The reason appears to be that officials want to keep the information confidential and for use only among officials, and not for public consumption.
“The order was to take measures to prevent the public from listening to the lectures and to prevent them from being distributed further,” the South Hamgyong resident said, adding that he learned this through conversations among the county party committee officials.
“This is the first time I’ve heard that China distorted Korean history,” he said.
The disputed historical content is related to Goguryeo, one of the ancient states that along with Baekjae and Silla fought for control over the Korean peninsula during the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BC to AD 668). Much of Goguryeo’s territory was located north of the present-day border between North Korea and China, in the area which China calls its northeast.
Both North and South Korea, and most academic discussion of Goguryeo describe it as a Korean kingdom, but the Chinese government in recent years has conducted studies that were perceived by critics to lay historical claims on the ancient kingdom.
Though China in 2004 agreed not to claim Goguryeo in history textbooks, discussion of the topic by nationalists is widespread on South Korean and Chinese websites.
Additionally, the lectures criticized China for what North Korean authorities saw as Beijing laying claim to cultural elements that are widely considered to be indisputably Korean.
This included the assertion that kimchi and Korean traditional clothes, known as hanbok in the South but chosonbok in the North, originated in China, and attempts to downplay North Korean national founder Kim Il Sung's guerrilla activities against colonial Japan before and during WWII.
The order to ban the lectures will only cause more confusion, an administrative official at a small company in the northwestern city of Rason told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“With this directive, (people) will come to the perception that China is distorting the history of the Korean Peninsula even though they do not know the details,” he said.
“Since Goguryeo is treated as much more important than Baekje or Silla in history, even ordinary citizens know that the Three Northeastern Provinces of China were once Goguryeo territories,” he said. “This directive could spread negative perceptions of China.”
The growing banned list makes it seem as if North Koreans “live on a distant planet,” Greg Scarlatoiu of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea told RFA.
“The information isolation the Kim family regime is trying to impose is reaching new extremes,” he said. “By banning even Chinese content, the regime is trying to isolate its subjects from any type of foreign content. … Fortunately, information from the outside world will continue to be smuggled in.”
Translated by Claire S. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.