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Research Article

North Korean Films and Young Generation in the Early 2000s: Focusing on the Images of Young Scientists and "Youth League"

Young Kwon Chung

서강대학교 동아연구소

Published: January 2015 · Vol. 68, No. 0 · pp. 33-66
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Abstract

This study deals with the issue of young generation represented by North Korean films in the early 2000s. Since 1990s North Korea has controlled the idea and consciousness of the young people going through with the fall of Eastern European socialist bloc and ``North Korean famine.`` While North Korean narrative film, White Smoke (2000) and A Mission of Young Generation (2002) represent young scientists, An Autobiography of the Youth (2001) and Boast of Young People (2003) represent Kim Il-Sung Socialist Youth League. In these films, old generation, particularly father figure and pseudo-father figure are dead or stagnant. However, they are not outworn object whom young people need take away. But rather, since old generation has knowledges, wisdoms, understandings and benevolences, young generation respects them deeply. Between 1994 and 1998, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il did so called ``Ruling with Dying Instruction.`` This is a following the teaching left by Kim Jong-Il``s father, Kim Il-Sung, the founder of North Korea. The Above films reflect these atmospheres of that times.
Keywords: 북한영화청년세대청년과학자청년동맹청년중시정책