"Photo Editing Is Expensive in North Korea...
May Belong to the Upper-Middle Class"
A family photo with a 'Gaejuk-i' photoshopped in was found among the belongings of a North Korean soldier who died after being deployed to Russia. Since Gaejuk-i is a meme that spread in South Korea in the early 2000s, it is analyzed that South Korean culture has been considerably introduced into North Korea. There is also a view that, since photo editing is costly in North Korea, the soldier deployed to Russia may have come from the North Korean upper-middle class.
A family photo with a 'Gaejuk-i' photoshopped in was found among the belongings of a North Korean soldier who died after being deployed to Russia. NK News capture.
On the 23rd (local time), NK News, a U.S.-based North Korea specialist media outlet, reported that a family photo appeared among the North Korean military belongings provided by a Ukrainian special forces unit.
The media stated, "The photo digitally composites a dog resembling 'Gaejuk-i,' a meme popular in South Korean internet communities in the 2000s, along with a flower garden scene."
The photo, believed to have been taken on August 15 last year, shows five people standing side by side, including a young man in military uniform. At the bottom of the photo, the phrase "May this be a beautiful memory!" is written, and on the right, the dog that gained popularity as Gaejuk-i is pictured.
Gaejuk-i is a meme (a photo or video popular on the internet) that started on the online community DC Inside in 2002 and gained popularity. At that time, internet users mainly used this meme to humorously express awkwardness or discomfort.
Rose, who worked as a wedding photo editor before defecting from North Korea in 2019, told NK that the photo shows typical characteristics of photos taken in North Korea, such as decorative photos or Korean text inserted, and said, "It seems that this soldier's photo is genuine." However, it is presumed that the photo editor did not know that the dog was a meme popular in South Korea. This is because most North Korean studios often use similar images imported from China.
Regarding the Gaejuk-i photo, there is also an analysis that the soldier deployed to Russia may have come from the North Korean upper-middle class. Park Cheol-hoon, a defector in his 30s, estimated that the owner of this photo likely had a background of middle class or higher, as photo editing costs are high in North Korea.
Meanwhile, the use of the Gaejuk-i meme may violate the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law. North Korea enacted this law in 2023 to block the inflow of South Korean culture and ideology. This law stipulates that if materials such as pictures or photos are created using South Korean style, language, or fonts, the offender may face at least six years of labor reform.
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