[NK News] North Korea cracks down on speech with new law to counter foreign influence

19 Jan 2023

NK News reports on North Korea's new law which “protects” the country’s language from foreign influences. The “Law on Protecting the Cultured Pyongyang Dialect” attempts to “reject non-normative linguistic elements,” but it’s unclear how it will be enforced. In its article, NK News quotes NKDB's latest report. 

The Eighth Session of the 14th SPA held Tuesday and Wednesday enacted the “Law on Protecting the Cultured Pyongyang Dialect” in order to “save” the country’s language and “reject non-normative linguistic elements.”

The ruling party sees the law as a “legal guarantee to strongly protect our ideology, system and culture,” the Rodong Sinmun reported. 

It did not specify how the law will be enforced or what punishments will be attached. 

The report also did not elaborate on what “non-normative” speech the ruling party sees as threatening their rule, but the move follows years of reported crackdowns on citizens who have picked up South Korean slang and speaking styles after illegally consuming television shows and music. 

The Seoul-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) released a report Thursday based on interviews with defectors detailing the organizations that are responsible for sweeping up citizens who engage in “anti-socialist” behavior such as non-approved speech styles. 


Read the full article on NK News' website HERE

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