North Korea has issued a court statement calling for the execution of two South Korean reporters over statements made in a book review.
The book in question, 2015’s North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors by British journalists Daniel Tudor and James Pearson, describes the communist nation as increasingly capitalist—a claim that the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s media arm, decried as “viciously defamed and distorted.” The Korean translation of the title is Capitalist People’s Republic of Korea. However, the regime directed the bulk of its wrath at its enemies to the south, vowing that the presidents of the newspapers would be “sentenced to death” and swearing to “track down to the end and cut off the dirty windpipes” of those responsible for the perceived slander.
Image Courtesy of Asia Society
It’s not uncommon for North Korean propaganda to viciously and elaborately threaten South Korea, particularly their news media. In 2012, the country announced that its military had aimed its weapons at the coordinates of specific newspapers and news organizations over their coverage of a Pyongyang children’s festival. Fortunately, the “merciless sacred war” did not come to pass.
Image Courtesy of News and Observer
The South Korean Unity Ministry responded to the threat railing against the belligerent order, and stated that they “will take necessary measures to guarantee the safety of South Korean nationals.”
Featured Image Courtesy of the Daily Beast.