North Korea has a well-developed bureaucracy for artistic production, which is organized within the Korean Workers Party’s Agitation and Propaganda Department. Literature plays a crucial role in promoting the regime, and aspiring writers must register with the Korean Writers’ Union and go through rigorous evaluations to have their work published. The author, Kim Ju-sŏng, highlights the existence of a secret collection of translated foreign novels in the Union, which includes works by authors like Hemingway, Dumas, and Bronte. The strict control over literature reflects the regime’s efforts to maintain ideological purity and restrict access to foreign ideas.
https://www.thedial.world/issue-10/kim-ju-song-memoir-frog-that-couldnt-jump