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People walk along Mirae Scientists Street in Pyongyang, North Korea on Monday. AP |
North Korea’s indoctrination center in Pyongyang displays a photo of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol alongside the South Korean military’s motto for countering provocations from Pyongyang -- “immediately, strongly and to the end" -- according to an image published by North Korean state media.
North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party and the nation’s most widely circulated publication, featured a photo of students at the Central Class Education House in Pyongyang -- which is dedicated to fostering hostility toward South Korea, the United States and Japan -- on the sixth page of its Nov. 27 edition.
One exhibit showcased a photo of Yoon visiting a military unit, accompanied by the caption: “The venomous remarks of scoundrel Yoon Suk Yeol causing destruction,” paired with the phrase, “Immediately, Strongly and to the End,” the South Korean military’s slogan for responding to provocations from North Korea.
Yoon's photo was displayed under the title, "The vicious main culprit of the confrontation mentality against the Republic," a reference to North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Another section of the display targeted the South Korea-US alliance, featuring the 45th South Korea-US Security Consultative Meeting -- an annual defense dialogue between the two countries - described as a "platform of discussion strategy of nuclear war provocations." The exhibit also labeled the South Korea-US alliance as an "aggressive treaty."
The Rodong Sinmun published the photo under the headline, “As generations change and the revolution advances, maintain a more resolute anti-imperialist class consciousness,” with the subtitle, “(North Korean people) cannot suppress their growing anger toward the South Korean puppet regime’s plots and schemes against the Republic."
The Central Class Education House, inaugurated in 2016 to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, serves as a key hub for fostering hostility toward South Korea, the United States and Japan while reinforcing ideological indoctrination.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul confirmed Friday that the exhibits related to South Korea at the Central Class Education House have been revised.
“These changes seem to be one of North Korea's attempts to dismantle the idea of unification and intensify class indoctrination aimed at fostering hostility toward South Korea,” an unnamed ministry official said.
These actions followed Kim's public assertion that the two Koreas now exist as "two hostile states" in a "belligerent relationship. This stance, first articulated at the 2023 year-end plenary session, has since been reiterated on multiple occasions, including at the Supreme People’s Assembly on Jan. 15, where Kim declared unification with South Korea no longer possible.
The Kim regime has also actively worked to eliminate unification symbols and references while severing physical links with South Korea, such as inter-Korean roads and railways.
