"Why Does the Map Look Like That?" North Korea Manipulates Footage of Kim Il-sung

[Anchor]

It has been confirmed that North Korea is tampering with historical records in line with its "two hostile states" policy toward South and North Korea. Even scenes featuring Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il are no exception.

Reporter Kim Ayeong has the story.

[Reporter]

This is a 70-minute documentary film praising Kim Il-sung, which was aired by Korean Central Television on July 8, the 32nd anniversary of Kim Il-sung's death.

In this scene, Kim Il-sung is seen examining a globe with foreign dignitaries.

If you look closely, the colors of the South and North on the Korean Peninsula map are painted differently.

We checked the same documentary with the same title that North Korea aired back in 2017.

In that version, the Korean Peninsula is colored in shades of red, appearing as a single entity.

While other elements of the film remain identical, only the colors of the South and North on the map have been altered.

North Korea amended its constitution last March to include new territorial clauses and completely removed references related to unification.

It appears the regime has even resorted to manipulating past footage by overwriting it.

Editing techniques were also employed to remove content entirely.

This scene, where Kim Il-sung receives a flag inscribed with the word "unification" as a gift from a foreign dignitary, and this scene, where Kim Jong-il looks at a wall map that includes the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, were completely deleted from the recent broadcast.

Analysts suggest this indicates a strategy to retroactively apply the "two hostile states" theory to the eras of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il by discarding their predecessors' records related to "unification."

[Interview: Cho Seong-ryul / Visiting Professor at Kyungnam University]
"Rather than the concept that they were one and then divided into two, they seem to be attempting to redefine history, the history of the anti-Japanese movement, and the history of the nation's founding by portraying them as separate states from the very beginning."

The fact that North Korea is targeting even films praising Kim Il-sung for historical manipulation suggests a determination to prevent the younger generation from even forming the concept that the two Koreas are the same people.

(Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.