North Korea’s Symbols

Every state must have its anthem, flag, and coat of arms ? or must it ? This package, now taken for granted, became the worldwide standard only about a century ago, when European habits and traditions began to spread across the globe.Nonetheless, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has all three. When in 1948, a separate North Korean state came into existence, it produced its own flag, anthem, and coat of arms ― all designed according to the then already established Communist tradition.The North Korean flag is red, edged at the top and bottom with thin white and wider blue bands. In the middle of the red band there is a white circle with a red five-pointed star. The inclusion of such star had been a long-established tradition of the Communist heraldry by 1948, but the colors ― red, blue, and white ― hint at the colors of the taege?kki flag, now used in South Korea. Indeed, until 1948 the taege?kki was widely used in the North as well. I have seen pictures of government-sponsored rallies where the participants carried portraits of Kim Il Sung, Lenin, and Stalin alongside the taege?kki! Just few years later this became unthinkable, and during the Korean War people who were found to have taege?kki in their homes could be shot.I would not say that the North Koreans treat their flag with great respect. But they are not unusual in this regard: the US-style flag worshipping is an exception rather than rule worldwide. Private houses seldom have flags. This is left to the authorities which ensure that a number of flags will be on display during some special events or official holidays.Following the Communist tradition, North Korea uses its coat of arms, perhaps, more frequently than it is normally done by Western countries. The coat of arms was also designed according to Communist traditions and essentially followed the pattern first suggested in 1918 for the Soviet coat of arms. It has an oval shape, and is surrounded by ears of rice, with the name of the state written on the red ribbon at the bottom.Nowadays, the North Korean Constitution (article 168) describes the coat of arms as, ``The national emblem of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea bears the design of a grand hydroelectric power plant under Mount Paektu, the sacred mountain of the revolution, and bearing the beaming light of a five-pointed red star, with ears of rice forming an oval frame, bound with a red ribbon bearing the inscription `The Democratic People's Republic of Korea'.'' However, one cannot find anything resembling the quite distinctive shape of Mount Paektu on the coat of arms. It depicts a rather unremarkable and generic mountain chain. Indeed, this reference to Paektu was introduced only in the 1990s when this mountain, allegedly Kim Jong-il's birthplace, became the focus of a powerful propaganda campaign. Thus the generic mountains on the coat of arms became Paektu ― keeping the previous unremarkable shape. The power station harks back to the days when the North was the industrial stronghold of the Korean peninsula, something that ceased to be the case long ago.The North Korean anthem was composed in late 1947. However, its role is somewhat ambiguous. Many North Koreans do not know the words. This is not surprising: the anthem is seldom played in North Korea. For all practical purposes the official anthem has long been replaced by the Song of General Kim Il-sung and its recent imitation, Song of General Kim Jong-il (the latter generally following the former). These songs are performed at most official functions, while the anthem can be heard only when a foreign dignitary visits Pyongyang or when it is played for a North Korean athlete who wins some international competition. The anthem is symbol of the state and nation, but it is deemed less important than the two Kim songs, which extol the leaders' personalities.Like the South, the North has its own officially approved ``state flower.'' This is the ``mokran,'' a kind of magnolia which was allegedly discovered and named by Kim Il Sung himself. I am not going to discuss whether a high school graduate had enough specialized knowledge to discover a new species. I do not doubt that a guerrilla commander could easily find the necessary reference books in the Manchurian wilderness. After all, North Korean propaganda has never bothered itself with being plausible.The ``mokran'' has played its role as the national symbol from the late 1960s, and in 1991 it finally received official state endorsement. However, in its symbolic capacity the magnolia has to compete with two peculiar flowers ― kimilsungia and kimjongilia. These two are far more popular