Depictions of North Korea in Popular Media

My master's thesis will be on 21st-century depictions of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea, in popular visual media (i.e., film, television, video games) from the United States, South Korea, Japan, and North Korea itself. My intention is to examine how these media artifacts reflect the relationships each of these nations has to the DPRK and how popular media portrayals have changed with geopolitical developments. This thesis will also take into account historical relationships of each country to the DPRK before the 21st century and the history of North Korea’s film industry and cinematic culture. In addition, I also plan to discuss how the news media (i.e., journalistic sources) of each subject nation portrays North Korea in comparison to pop media.