Arius
@ariusderr
“North Korean culture” is distinct from “Korean culture” because the former has only been around for 75 years or so while the latter is thousands of years old. Like many communist revolutionaries, Kim Il Sung did everything he could to “reset” culture and history when he took over. As a result “North Korean culture” is very much a personality cult built on authoritarianism, illiberalism and oppression and is mostly disconnected from what came before 1948. South Korea is much closer to “Korean culture” but also grapples with their own “resets” – first the 1910-1945 colonization by Japan and then the division of Korea into North and South. In other words, what is and isn’t “Korean culture” is a source of much debate among scholars.
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