Author to give RASKB talk on North Korea’s Juche

Brian Myers, author of “The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters,” will give a talk on North Korean propaganda hosted by the Royal Asiatic Society’s Korea Branch on Sept. 24.

Myers has argued that North Korea’s central “Juche” philosophy lacks substance and, rather than forming a North Korean brand of communism, acts as a fig leaf for a race-based nationalism inherited from Japanese colonial times.

In his talk “Red Herring: North Korea’s Juche Myth,” Myers will introduce ideas from his next book, which will look at how the North launched the Juche platform and how it continues to serve its interests.

The talk, which runs from 7:30-9:30 p.m., is free for RASKB members and 7,000 won for nonmembers, and takes place in the Residents’ Lounge of Somerset Palace in Seoul’s Anguk-dong.

(paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)