When it comes to bellicose and galvanizing rhetoric, North Korea’s leadership is prolific and inventive. It has printed posters for children’s classrooms that proclaim, ”We love playing military games knocking down the American bastards” and, during the economic chaos following the demise of the Soviet Union, it urged citizens onward with the cheerful pledge: ”Let’s eat only two meals a day.”
When it comes to bellicose and galvanizing rhetoric, North Korea’s leadership is prolific and inventive. It has printed posters for children’s classrooms that proclaim, ”We love playing military games knocking down the American bastards” and, during the economic chaos following the demise of the Soviet Union, it urged citizens onward with the cheerful pledge: ”Let’s eat only two meals a day.”
In preparation for celebrations of its 70th year since the country became independent from Japan and the peninsula was partitioned, in 1945, the North Korean government has released 310 new slogans.
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The slogans represent the North Korean’s “dreams and ideals,” according to the party, and they touch upon science, technology, agriculture, entertainment, and education—all topics the current leader, Kim Jong-un, has spoken of in the past. Some praise North Korea’s previous leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Others promise to ”turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland” and to rid the country of food shortages. There is even one that calls for “more stylish school uniforms and quality school things for our dear children.”
This new raft of slogans are likely to be very visible in North Korea, where government slogans have been posted everywhere from billboards and city streets to mountainsides and carved into trees.
Here are some of our favorites, pulled from Korea Central News Agency Watch, a news organization that reports (paywall) on North Korean issues and collects reports from North Korean state media.
