Random Things North Korean Schoolchildren Learn About The United States (12 items)

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  (#6) Kids Like To Beat Up Dummies Of American Soldiers At Recess

  Schools in America try to discourage violence on the playground. This isn’t the case in North Korea. Children have an array of tanks and toy guns to choose from for their recess games. Three Associated Press journalists visited a school in North Korea in 2012, and they reported the school’s principal pulled out a dummy of an American soldier. The principal said the children enjoyed pummeling it with stones during playtime.
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  (#9) The Juche Ideology Is The Core Of North Korean Education And Vows To Bring Down Capitalist Scum

  Juche, or "self-reliance," is the official national ideology of North Korea and is something instilled in children at an early age through the state-run education system. It was originally developed by Kim II Sung in 1955, and it emphasizes the responsibility of the North Korean public to maintain a revolutionary spirit and to forward the state’s progress. It also demands absolutely loyalty to the state leader and a hatred of capitalism.

  “We must overturn imperialism and capitalism, and continue the revolution even after we establish the socialist system. Socialism and communism does not automatically get established through the usurpation of imperialism and capitalism. The longevity of socialism and communism are reached through long-term labor and class struggles,” the philosophy states.
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  (#10) Early Anti-American Sentiment Starts With The Misrepresentation Of The 'General Sherman' Incident

  In 1866, an armed American marine merchant steam ship named the General Sherman docked in Korea, determined to trade goods. During this time, Korea was under the Joseon Dynasty, which had an insolation policy similar to what North Korea has now. The Americans steamed up to Pyongyang - despite warnings not to - and they were then said to have detained Adjutant-General Yi Hyon-Ik.

  After local protests, the General Sherman was said to have fired shots into the crowd, which launched a full-on attack. Everyone on board the General Sherman was killed; those who escaped onto the shore were beaten to death. While the General Sherman should not have antagonized the Koreans, what North Koreans are taught in school today varies greatly from what occurred. They are told the General Sherman was a naval warship sent to Korea to invade and conquer the nation. This marks the beginning of anti-American sentiment in North Korean history.
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  (#5) North Koreans Are Taught That The US Started The Korean War

  There is a propaganda book children in North Korea have undoubtedly read in their classrooms titled The US Imperialists Started the Korean War. In reality, the Korean War started when the communist North Korean People’s Army invaded the south by crossing the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950. The war lasted for three years and left millions of people dead. When it ended in 1953, North and South Korea were separated by a demilitarized zone, and they have remained separated since. However, the propaganda book claims the United States started the war so that they could use Korea as a jumping off point for the progression of their global domination.
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  (#11) Propaganda Claims The Americans Planned To Turn South Korea Into A Colony

  The propaganda book The US Imperialists Started the Korean War claims the US occupied South Korea to colonize it and make it into a massive military base to conquer the North. This is what North Korea calls the “greatest national misfortune” in the history of the Korean Peninsula. The propaganda book claims the US occupation pit North and South Korea against each other, stating, “It was the root cause of a calamity of territorial bisection and national division which the Korean people had never experienced during their long history of 5,000 years.” The book also claims, “From the first day of their occupation of South Korea, the US imperialists followed colonial enslavement and military base policies.”
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  (#8) A Book Claims Americans Killed A Quarter Of The North Korean Population In A 52-Day Rampage

  There is a book in the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities which claims American soldiers killed a quarter of North Korea’s population (then over 35,000 people) over the span of 52 days. The book was published by Pyongyang’s Foreign Languages Publishing House in 2009. The museum also houses skulls and bones from alleged victims of the war.

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