The Cleanest Race

by B.R. Myers

published 2011

Rating: 4.3

B.R. Myers wrote this book in 2009 and has obviously spent a lot of time studying the culture and propaganda of DPRK.  Having traveled there myself in 2012, I found his book fascinating.  His observations explained many of the strange things I observed in DPRK, and I found his explanations completely plausible and consistent with my own experience.

Myers explains that DPRK is actually not a Confucian society as many scholars assume, and is not a Marxist society either.  It is nominally a personality cult, although the predominant belief that drives all of the internal propaganda is that the Korean people are a uniquely pure, virtuous and child-like race, unlike any others on the planet.  This aspect of Korean belief can be traced to their 35 years of Japanese occupation, in which they adopted these themes from their imperialist occupiers.  

Myers argues that to understand DPRK we must understand how they see themselves and how they see the outside world.  Many assume or believe that the leadership of DPRK does not believe in their own propaganda, but Myers explains that the evidence suggests that they do in fact believe it.  In a nutshell, they see themselves as pure and virtuous people who must continually struggle to keep the evil world at bay, and especially the depraved imperialist Americans.   Surprisingly, many in South Korea share some of the most basic tenets of these beliefs, though of course not the cult-like worship of Kim Il Sung.   South Koreans are overwhelmingly in favor of U.S. troops maintaining their presence (after this writing, South Korea has agreed that the U.S. will gradually reduce and eliminate its military presence on the peninsula).  It appears that all Koreans on the peninsula share a high degree of xenophobia, though the ROK (south) has greatly moderated this after 70 years of democratic rule and rising material wealth.  

I think I would not have found this book as interesting had I not traveled through North Korea recently.  Though well-written, the details of the propaganda would have appeared somewhat unbelievable.  But I was there, and can verify that I saw just about everything the writer references, and if fact had many of the same observations, though of course not his depth of knowledge.  

As DPRK becomes less air-tight regarding influences from South Korea, China and elsewhere, it will become increasingly challenging for the DPRK propaganda machine to maintain its storyline.  They have traditionally had two storylines:  one for internal use and another for the outside world.  That will become more problematic as tourism and ties to South Korea grow and better technologies find their way inside the regime.  After nearly 70 years of isolation and total power within their borders, the new ruler (Kim Jong Un) at 29 years old seems unprepared to deal with the eventuality of a more open society.

Myers concludes that western governments are wrong to assume that Pyongyang wants normalized relations.  In fact that is the one thing that would surely eliminate their etre’ de raison.  The logic for his conclusion goes like this:  Koreans are the purest, cleanest race, most virtuous race on the planet, childlike in their ways.  They have no interest in becoming an imperial power or of attacking anyone, other than perhaps the U.S. for pre-emptive reasons or retaliation for past crimes.  Given their pure and child-like nature, they need a strong parent-leader to protect their country and race from the evil world, and especially the depraved Americans.  

So as you can see, if Pyongyang were to normalize relations with the U.S., or to relinquish its nuclear arsenal or reduce its military threat, the leadership would cease to have a reason to exist.  Such a development would run counter to 70 years of relentless propaganda - three generations of unquestioning belief.  In fact Kim Jong Un has no choice but to continue being as belligerent as possible to both South Korea and the U.S.  It would not be entirely surprising if he actually attacked South Korea or even the U.S., other than the presumed fact that we expect his military would fall short of the task.  But the North Koreans have already shown a high aptitude to turn lemons into political lemonade.  As with the Korean war, despite the fact that Pyongyang was leveled and that they had no choice but to sign an armistice, they managed to claim victory, even today, as evidenced by the food aid the U.S. sent to DPRK in an attempt to make amends!

Here’s some text from page 150 of the book:

It is no coincidence that a poster illustrating that story’s (Korean War) central crime - the caption “100,000 times revenge on the Yankee vampires” - appeared in 1999, when North Korea was the Clinton administration’s main aid recipient in Asia.  Nor was it by accident that Jackals (DPRK novel) was simultaneously republished complete with racist caricatures, in three magazines in August 2003, just before and during the first round of the six-party talks.  Ever since Kim Jong Il proclaimed his military first government, effectively shaking off responsibility for the country’s economic ruin, declines in real-world tension between Pyongyang and Washington have seen an intensification of anti-Americanism, not a lessening of it.  Only one conclusion is possible:  The regime is worried that the masses might cease to perceive the US as an enemy, thus leaving it with no way to justify its rule - or even to justify the existence of the DPRK as a separate state.

Not sure I would have enjoyed this as much had I not toured DPRK.  Still, well-written and documented with cogent arguments throughout.  Hope he writes a second edition if and when conditions in DPRK change.