Do they have such things as love in Pyongyang!?

One doesn’t have to support the regime in North Korea to scorn the parody of US propaganda & oppose the repeated threats of military aggression against it’s people. If the uninformed & gullible weren’t taken in by the propaganda & it didn’t pose a threat to the people of Korea, the stuff is a cornucopia of idiotic delights.

Best of all are the constant photos of goose-stepping parades; second are the synchronized swimmers--as if North Koreans only did things in rigid formations. The world stood still when we saw a photo of a young couple walking hand-in-hand in the park. Do they have such things as love in Pyongyang!? But the propagandists have really overdone a good thing. As repeatedly observed, you see one goose-stepper, you’ve seen them all! And who ever watches synchronized swimming anyway--even in the Dowlympic games!?

This little photo is a gem of a whole other sort. The caption reads: “A North Korean teacher holds open a children's pop-up book, which depicts a US soldier killing a Korean woman with a hatchet, in a library room at Kaeson Kindergarten in central Pyongyang on March 9, 2013. For North Koreans, anti-American indoctrination starts as early as kindergarten.”

Is it possible to suspend disbelief & put aside the Korean War & the continued over 60-year occupation of South Korea (which confirm in spades that little pop-up)? Is it possible to ignore the constant US threats against North Korea or the missiles lined up headed directly for Pyongyang? In US history (not just in kindergarten but all the way through college), Black & Native American kids question how they got disappeared in US history--just written out, like they were never there--instead of being central to the very formation & development & systemic crises of this country.

At first glance, this photo looks like a US video war game--teaching kids to hate other people. The only difference between North Korean pop-ups & US video games is that the US really does attack other countries--& North Korea just threatens.

(Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP)