Visual Metaphors in North Korean Graphic Novels for Children

Abstract: North Korea produces dozens of comic books each year for its children of various ages. Comic books for younger readers are often populated with anthropomorphized animal characters – not humans. Some of them tell stories that seem to be allegories of the Korean War. In these graphic novels, the animals represent through visual metaphor the various groups found in Korean War stories – good and pure North Koreans, traitorous and cowardly South Koreans, and their evil American overlords. This paper examines these visual metaphors to see how good and bad characters are graphically presented to young North Korean readers.