NK TV, Internet filled with capitalistic ads

By Choi Sung-jin

“From diet to diabetes.” This is an advertising phrase that promotes “Unicolon,” a North Korean drug that allegedly strengthens the immune system, on an Internet site of the communist country.

The website, Today’s Joseon, has recently opened a corner that introduces about 60 choice items reportedly developed through the North’s technology. They range from “Sex Enhancer,” the North Korean version of Viagra, made from natural herb medicine, to “Hwiparam” (Whistle), a passenger car made by Pyeonghwa Motors.

The rather unusual fad of commercial advertisements in the socialist country seems to have some political purpose, North Korea watchers here said, suggesting Kim Jong-un’s promise of “better lives for people” is being kept.

“Four years have passed since the third-generation Kim took over,” said Cho Bong-hyun, a fellow at the IBK Economic Research Institute. “And the rush of commercial ads appears aimed at demonstrating his economic accomplishments, as seen by what they view as high-quality and sophisticated consumer items.”

North Korean authorities have also become more favorable to product advertising. “Effective advertisements are significant in that they satisfy people’s materialistic and cultural demands, as well as promoting the sales of products,” said an economic journal published in Pyongyang in its recent issue.

North Korean television is also filled with advertisements promoting cosmetics, ginseng and various medicines, observers said. Some of these products target foreigners living in the isolationist country but their efficacy has yet to be proven in most cases, they said.