MANUFACTURING THREAT AND FRIENDSHIP: NORTH KOREAN STATE MEDIA AND THE EMERGENCE OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH RUSSIA
MANUFACTURING THREAT AND FRIENDSHIP: NORTH KOREAN STATE MEDIA AND THE EMERGENCE OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH RUSSIA

Author(s): Jana CHAMROVA
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Security and defense, Military policy, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Carol I National Defence University Publishing House
Keywords: North Korea; Russia; state media; strategic partnership; polarization; security discourse.
Summary/Abstract: This paper examines how North Korean state media has reflected and discursively constructed the deepening relationship between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Russian Federation in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. While public debate often emphasises material cooperation, this study argues that DPRK media provides evidence of a gradual, strategic alignment, built through narrative cues, historical analogies and ideological framing that present Russia as a principled partner confronting the West. Using a constructed four-week sample of Korean-language articles from 2015 and 2025, this research combines qualitative content analysis with critical discourse and narrative analysis to trace how Russia’s function in DPRK discourse shifts from relatively routinized “friendship” to a more central role as legitimating authority, moral ally and counter-hegemonic pole. The findings suggest that North Korean media is not merely reporting cooperation but actively stabilising a worldview in which DPRK–Russia partnership belongs to a polarised international order.

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