No Motherland Without. Kim Yo-jong, Mother of the Nation and of Propaganda

 

North Korean: Carlo Alberto Magnani.
Western: Alex Isabelle.

The events of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aka North Korea, begin already in the aftermath of the Second World War. It will take about five years for the problems that began as a simple territorial division between the Soviet Union and the United States, and then finally exploded with the inconclusive Korean War, to crystallize in the form we know well: two states, divided by the most militarized border in the world and by a military truce that has been questioned several times. North of the 38th parallel, which divides the two Koreas with glacial precision, the Kim dynasty takes power, in the person of the military leader Kim Il-sung, who finds himself with a poor, wounded and extremely underdeveloped country. Will the discipline of Juche be able to guide North Korea through the waves of history?

The game opens with the news that, of the three main population centers in the country, two are without electricity: in Kaesong and Rason, in fact, it is already a miracle that there is running water, which in any case is not drinkable. However, the Kim administration does not lose heart and quickly starts work to rebuild, at least, Pyongyang's infrastructure. The proverbial "Pyongyang speed", which is the way of working that pays more attention to the quantity than the quality of the results, immediately turns out to be a misstep: to avoid incurring punishments the supervisors of the various construction sites communicate false data regarding the progress of the works, and in reality almost none of the new infrastructures inaugurated are actually operational. At the same time, quickly the north koreans collectivise the entire agricultural industry of the country, which in the short term gives good results: given the interest of international observers in the state of the country, the tourist region of Kŭmgangsan is created, which serves as a mirror for larks, to make visitors believe that life is great in North Korea. At least there is running water and electricity here. In the rest of the country people still die from typhus, but we don't to talk about that.

The defectors' route is established.

Kim Jong-il, the son of Kim Il-sung, still an infant, shows great interest in the cinematographic machine, and therefore produces (so the legends will say) Sea of ​​Blood, an epic of historical revisionism that brings together the collective conscience in the moment of need. The propaganda proves to work excellently: people believe in the Workers' Paradise, although this does nothing to curb the crisis, which now extends to the territories adjacent to Pyongyang.

A few years after the beginning of the Kim saga, the country is already stuck in a grip of underdevelopment which attracts international pity: thanks to this, North Korea enters the Non-Aligned Movement, which brings global public opinion to cheer for the Kims, much to the disappointment of a West that would instead like the country to collapse as quickly as possible. And we were almost there, because a few weeks later two American soldiers get killed while cutting down a tree along the demilitarized zone. Tension explodes: the war almost breaks out and the credibility of the North Korean government suddenly plummets.

In Pyongyang they don't give up: new investments lead the city to develop further. Within a year it is definitively made the capital of the country (which until then was, officially, still Seoul). After which Kim Il-sung gets carried away: given that, faced with a seemingly endless crisis, the hints of a general desertion towards the West begin to become serious, the country's government closes the borders and passes the law of "three generations of punishment". In practice, if someone were to be arrested while trying to escape the country, not only him will be arrested, but also his children and the children of his children will serve a life imprisonment in the pleasant prisons of North Korea.

The DPRK begins to purge unwanted people.

The news shocks people and as a result this only encourages young people who are already outside the country to never return: the Hungarian Revolution breaks out and several young Koreans, with combat experience, take part in it. Once this is repressed they are ordered to return home, but many don't want to know and take this opportunity to escape towards the West while there is still time. West which, noting that the desire to escape from the North Korean nightmare evidently exists, financially supports the establishment of routes to support defectors, which for the moment pass through China and head towards the south.

Meanwhile, even in South Korea there is no shortage of authoritarian momentum: around thirty South Koreans, accused of having illegally visited East Berlin and North Korea, are arrested and tortured by the Park administration. After this experience, one of them is convinced of the correctness of the North Korean cause and returns north of the border: the internationalist current of the government, due to his past, will appoint him part of the country's governing elite. The current closest to Kim, however, not eager for international attention, has him arrested on charges of being a spy for the West (how ironic) and purged a few months later together with the leader of that current, Pak Hon-yong. The tragedy is already becoming a farce, and there are those who are there to immortalize it: the young scion Kim Jong-il in fact continues to dedicate himself to film production. He kidnaps two South Korean film stars, which are also developing rapidly, and puts them in charge of the national film industry. The North Korean economy is a mess, in short, but the culture is booming.

The kidnapping of Shin Sang-ok
and Choi Eun-hee brings new life
to the great North Korean cinema.

While there is still no trace of a power plant in Kaesong and Rason, Kim continues to develop the territories around the capital, also thanks to a strong economic contribution from the Soviet Union. These contributions cover, in truth, an attempt by the USSR and China to influence the country's destiny from within, eliminating Kim Il-sung and putting a more controllable puppet in his place. The latter, however, smells the bullshit and has all his political opponents, the so-called "August Faction", purged en masse, thus solving the problem. While socialist countries argue among themselves, and while Kim Il-sung's personality cult is cemented, the West increases investments in the trafficking of defectors. And rightly so because shortly afterwards the North Korean concentration camps are definitively founded: they will be used to repress all political dissidents.

Since the years pass but North Korea is still stuck in prehistory, a seven-year plan for economic development is established, by virtue of which investments in infrastructure are multiplied. China, putting aside the disagreements linked to the August Faction affaire, offers economic aid, thanks to which drinkable water finally starts to arrive in various regions of the country.

The interesting thing is that the bureaucracy linked to these infrastructure projects in North Korea becomes a leviathan with its own autonomy. For example: the inauguration of the Hamhung nuclear power plant, designed with the help of East German engineers, is announced with great celebrations. Finally there is electricity for everyone. However, this rapid development of the city clashes with the planning linked to the Chollima Movement, an initiative to promote workaholicism which was supposed to go hand in hand with the development of various infrastructures which were however made superfluous by the arrival of the Hamong nuclear power plant. Gossips will say that Kim Il-sung was seen freaking out and muttering things along the lines of "did they have to do this fucking reactor right there?". As a consequence the Chollima Movement is cancelled, returning to a project of rebuilding a large and strong army. As a result the countryside is emptied, as are the factories, and Southern Hamyong, which had received strong incentives in previous years, returns to being a peripheral, uninhabited and underdeveloped countryside.

More or less all regions of the country
are reached by electricity.

Finally (... as a result of an error by the West player) Kaesong and Rason are also able to develop a little, and they return to being vaguely productive centres. People are mobilized en masse to transform these cities into modern and functional places. As a consequence of this movement of the workforce, part of the country is once again experiencing blackouts and other technical problems, but it matters little: the fight against typhoid fever is now a challenge within the reach of the Workers' Paradise. Suddenly, while the Westerners manage to fully develop the trade of defectors, which now passes through China and descends towards South-East Asia, the unthinkable happens: the DPRK's exports exceed those of South Korea. The enthusiasm is such that, when the Winter Olympic Games are organized in Seoul, Pyongyang offers to collaborate. A lot of money is spent trying to give a decent image of the country, except that the North Korean athletes prove unprepared and do not even collect a medal, bringing home only the international ridicule. The Kims' prestige suffers as a result. This allows Kissinger to travel to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese leaders, who intercede with the North Koreans and force them to eliminate the caste system that allowed them to directly control the country's leadership. However, the north koreans make peace with the Russians, with whom they had not been on good terms since the August Faction incident, and manage to raise the money needed to inaugurate the Nampo dam, a gigantic undertaking that makes North Korea even more autonomous in terms of energy.

As it has already happened in the past, Kim Il-sung gets carried away and when an American ship, the USS Pueblo, passes near the North Korean coast, intent on carrying out electronic surveillance of the Soviet Union, he orders to capture it together with its entire crew. The rest of the world finally realizes, thanks to this tiny news story, that oh my God the North Koreans are bloodthirsty madmen, my lady we really have to do something, and so the global opinion indicator finally begins to lean towards the West. The attention is now focused on North Korea. Kim Il-sung seizes the opportunity and has the idea: he gives the order to start the development of missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons, understanding that this will bring respect to the nation. Meanwhile, the West continues to spend a lot to bring out of the country a few defectors who then spread shit about their country of origin.

While North Korean exports exceed South Korean ones,
Kissinger goes to soften Beijing.

It is in this moment of tension that the Great Leader leaves us. Power passes to the heir to the throne Kim Jong-il. At the same time, the Soviet Union dissolves: an important, recently rediscovered, ally of the North Koreans disappears. And so does its money.

As a result, a major food crisis begins to develop, and Kim Jong-il, being the practical and life-savvy man that he is, decides to opt for austerity measures: the population is asked to eat only two meals a day. The measure does nothing to contain the increasingly rampant hunger, and rather offers valid arguments to those who are thinking of packing their bags. South Korea and Japan, however, despite the directives of George Bush Sr.'s government, offer aid, effectively solving the rampant food crisis through their contributions. The West is furious, but does not stop financing the trafficking of deserters.

Carter leads the diplomatic attempts.

Kim Jong-il is a fan of cinema with explosions, so he goes full blast with ballistics research. The first results are unpromising, but the country's infrastructure continues to develop, which indirectly also helps the development of the missile project. The forced labor of tens of thousands of people interned in concentration camps proves less useful, although they continue to offer pretexts to the West to bring deserters out of there. The food crisis is also proving to be very cumbersome, as it resumes at full speed, frustrating the efforts of Japan and South Korea to prevent these poor people from dying of hunger. Even former American President Jimmy Carter visits the country to show himself open to negotiations. While diplomats do their work, the architects of the world's destiny continue to do theirs: Westerners continue to finance the sabotage of North Korean infrastructure, while ballistic tests continue at full speed in the Workers' Paradise. To impress Carter, the first serious test is finally carried out, broadcasted live internationally: the launch of the first of the Kwangmyosong satellites. The launch is successful, and amidst the international uproar Jimmy Carter returns home with a somewhat worried expression. Following his advice, orders will be given to start joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, while on the North Korean side another four similar satellites will be sent into orbit: the project will be considered a success. The prestige of the Kim dynasty grows, despite the forces of nature conspiring against it: the Yalu river, in fact, overflows, causing hundreds of deaths, which will be followed by thousands more due to the destruction of agricultural surfaces and dams that kept the country alive. The infrastructure reconstruction work promises to be long.

The Mother of the Nation, the best waifu
Kim Yo-jong-chan, enters the play.

International tension is therefore growing. Mongolia pulls out of it, starting to actively monitor the desert areas through which North Korean defectors sometimes pass. But what most of all turns out to be a spanner in the works of those who support desertion is the coming to power of a woman: Kim Yo-jong. The younger sister of Kim Jong-un, and therefore the cadet daughter of the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, still alive, ascends to the highest levels of the country's administration, taking over the propaganda office from her father, and reveals herself to be what the people need: a symbol of progress, of unity, of faith in Juche. North Korea finds what for decades it needed to produce a shred of national unity: the flow of defectors towards the West slows down, and the money to be spent to convince them to travel the entire long route to South-East Asia increases considerably. Also because Thailand as well closes its borders: to get to South Korea you now have to go through Malaysia, which further extends the length of the route, and therefore the amount of people you have to bribe to get the deserters safely to the South. The North Koreans ask themselves whether having a woman in the government cabinet is a wise thing, while the Westerners shit themselves angrily because they know very well that with this cheap game the North Koreans have succeeded where generations of democratic governments have failed: to have a capable, admired and strong woman in a position of power. Despite despairing, Western administrations still continue to believe in it: a reality show is produced in South Korea on the lives of defectors.

In the north they are already thinking of something else: given that war is brewing, an entire miniature city is developed in the basement of Pyongyang, where numerous infrastructures and research facilities get moved. A new ballistic test is also done, but the Hwasong-15 explodes in mid-air proving that the research still has some way to go. Some in America wonder if the missile might have been able to reach the United States; it is also noted that it appears to be based on certain old Soviet designs. The international press accuses Russia of having supplied them to the North Koreans, but they in return accuse Ukraine.

Distopy becomes reality.

While the rest of the world focuses on the envy of the missile the North Koreans are not sitting idle, inaugurating Faithful Servant 2.0, an algorithm that contributes to the management of the social rank of all North Korean citizens, and renewing the development of a capable secret service to monitor citizens who might be thinking of slipping away. To demonstrate that international tension is skyrocketing, a small case of war even breaks out: a South Korean ship carries out exercises, firing shots in an area of ​​sea that North Korea claims as its own. A North Korean military ship responds to fire, and then bombards a nearby South Korean island with one hundred and seventy cannon shots. Four people die, after which the South Korean navy responds, and it is not known to how much the North Korean losses amount.

With the arrival of Kim Yo-jong, the prospects
for defectors and dissidents become bleak.

The West exploits a little this "Yeonpyeong bombing", putting in circulation in the North a certain amount of leaflets containing anti-government propaganda, as well as USB sticks containing information on the Western lifestyle, which begins to create a new generation of political dissidents. But it's all fluff: curiously, in fact, the direction of movement of the deserters is reversed: some of them return to North Korea just at the moment in which Mongolia loosens its grip on the borders; bringing deserters to the other side, by now, thanks to Kim Yo-jong's contribution has become a slow, expensive and tedious operation. Finally, to crown the failure of these years, political dissidents and all their past, present and future families are arrested en masse and taken to concentration camps.

The three-stage rocket W O R K S

They would have to spend the rest of their days there, but a few years later, with the end of the armistice between the two Koreas which effectively, officially, put an end to the truce of the Korean War, global tension reaches a point of break. Consequently, the Kims have to do something to reassure the global public opinion, and they choose to show themselves as a modern country by closing the concentration camps. What happens to the political dissidents inside is not known, because they do not return to the board. And how can we celebrate this newfound modernity? As Westerners do: with fireworks. The DPRK thus proceeds with a missile test, of course. The Hwasong-14 manages, unlike its relative of the same name, to reach high altitudes, and therefore to demonstrate that North Korean ballistic research is managing to produce weapons capable of reaching the entire globe. While, thanks to this, the Kims' prestige grows, China offers economic aid to North Korea, because all in all Beijing likes the direction that the DPRK is taking on the international scene. Nordpolitik, the attempt at rapprochement between the two Koreas carried out by South Korean president Roh Tae-woo, is of no use: it is now clear that the only thing that makes Westerners reason is the fear that the North Koreans will know how to produce an intercontinental nuclear missile. And so they ignore everything else and focus entirely on the development of the ballistic program, arriving within a few years at a final, definitive test: a final three-stage rocket is fired out of the atmosphere, and succeeds to fly over Japan, proving perfectly capable of reaching American territories as well.

All of this definitively cements the prestige of the Kim house. With nuclear weapons now at North Korea's full disposal, the threat of military intervention against the country has been averted. Likewise, the figure of Kim Yo-jong, young daughter of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il (never dead, in this game) at the head of the propaganda office, proves to be the key charismatic element to contain political dissent in the country. A country that has finally emerged from its bubble of eternal crisis: typhus is defeated, hunger too. The end of the USSR, which seemed to have condemned the country to heat death, instead demonstrated that the DPRK can manage to get by even with a limited supply of international contributions. Ultimately the country is stable, propaganda works and the Western funds spent to collapse North Korea have been flushed down the toilet.

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