The lack of a critical response in the Defense Daily to an article it published one month ago on the North Korean opera "The Sea of Blood," or "Pibada" points to how low the military's lack of vigilance has fallen. Currently, some people seem to think that real peace has settled on the peninsula due to the government's reconciliation moves and if the military, the last bastion to defend the country, has fallen into the same mind set, this is a serious matter.
What is laughable is the Ministry of National Defense's explanation that it forgot to place the article, provided by Yonhap, in quotation marks to show that it was North Korean in origin. The ministry has missed the real problem, namely that there is no reason to carry such a story, as the opera is the most representative of five such revolutionary works glorifying Kim Il-sung and his "juche" philosophy. The North alleges it was conceived during Kim's alleged guerilla fight against the Japanese and praises him and communism.
In spite of this the Defense Daily carried essentially propaganda on the opera's 1,500th performance in its section devoted to "North Korea Today." The ministry said that the article was to let soldiers know the real North Korea, which praises the Kim father and son duo, even through artistic work, but this smacks of sophistry. If the ministry really thinks this, then it should carry Rodong Sinmun articles as they are written.
This is not a simple mistake, but can be considered an extension of slackened vigilance in the military with regard to North Korea. Because of this, the article had remained unchecked for a month, until the issue was raised at the National Assembly. All of the active and reserve military should clear out any lack of vigilance existing in its leadership.
