UN report reveals North Korea dictator controls arts, culture, creative freedom

By Anjali Sharma

UNITED NATIONS – UN report on Friday revealed how North Korea turns art, music, and leisure into propaganda, leaving citizens without real entertainment or creative freedom.

The report said that when people think of entertainment, they often imagine movies, music, books, games, or sports that bring joy and relaxation.

In most countries, culture and leisure are part of everyday life, and they allow people to escape from work, stress, and problems. But in North Korea, things are very different.

The new UN report showed that entertainment there is not really entertainment at all. Instead, it is another tool for control.

The report explained that in North Korea, the government decides what people can see, hear, and enjoy. Nothing is free, and nothing is neutral.

Every song, every play, every painting, and even every dance must serve one purpose: to praise the leaders and to spread the state’s ideology. In this way, leisure and culture swiftly turn into propaganda.

According to the UN, cultural life in North Korea is completely under state control. People cannot freely create music, write stories, or make films. They also cannot choose what kind of art or entertainment they want to consume.

Everything is produced by the government and carefully checked before being shown to the public.

This means entertainment is not really about fun or creativity. Instead, it is about sending a message.

A theatre play may look like it tells a story, but its real goal is to remind the audience about loyalty to the Kim family.

A concert may seem to offer music, but every note and lyric must honor the state.

Even paintings and sculptures must follow strict rules. Many of them simply showed the leaders in a heroic way.

The report highlighted that this system removes any chance for people to enjoy culture as a form of freedom or personal expression.

The entertainment becomes part of a system of control.

In North Korea, leisure is organized and supervised. Workers, students, and even children spend their free time in activities that reinforce political loyalty, and this comes at a cost.

The report explained that cultural events are not optional. People often attend political plays, concerts, or film screenings. These are not for entertainment but for education in the government’s ideology.

Workers may be told to watch a film that glorifies the military or a play that praises sacrifice for the country.

School children might be taken to a musical performance about devotion to the leader. Families may spend their holidays in mass events where patriotic songs and dances dominate.

Another effect of this system is the loss of individual creativity. In North Korea, people cannot freely write a poem, paint a picture, or compose a song unless it fits the approved themes.

Artists are not independent. They work under state organizations, and their job is to produce propaganda.

UN report showed that this creates a society where culture does not reflect the people’s feelings or experiences, their lives, and them as a whole. It reflects only what the state wants.

Art and entertainment in most societies allow individuals to think, to imagine, and to explore new ideas.

In North Korea, these chances are denied. People live within a cultural box designed by the authorities.

The report indirectly highlights the huge gap between North Korea and the rest of the world. Across continents around the globe, entertainment is diverse.

People can choose between different genres of music, various types of films, personal hobbies, and what not!

The leisure activities can be private or shared, quiet or exciting.

The choice does not exist. There is only one kind of entertainment: the one that serves the state. This creates a life where joy, laughter, and creativity are carefully managed and limited.

The report showedthat without free entertainment, people lose a part of what makes life rich and meaningful. Art just does not mean fun. It helps people express emotions. They help people connect with each other.

North Korea strips its citizens of something human, and bare minimum.

Entertainment in North Korea is not entertainment at all. It is propaganda disguised as leisure. It is control hidden in music and plays. And, it is creativity silenced by politics, the report concluded.