Dangerous communists, inscrutable Orientals, Starving Masses

Abstract

The U.S. media coverage of the North Korean famine reflects not so much the famine itself but rather American preconceptions and interests there. At the level of discourse, there is a relationship between these interests and Western traditions of Orientalism as well as American traditions of anti‐communism. At a more concrete level, this coverage reveals the political and economic stakes the U.S. has in maintaining a capitalist world order which it and its allies can dominate. In this way, the U.S. media coverage of North Korea's famine resembles its coverage of other issues in that nation, such as nuclear weapons, the four‐party peace talks or even North Korea's Olympic athletes.