Perhaps this recent press photo released all over the world by the North Korean News Agency (NCNA) of a group of Korean soldiers can give us a great deal of insight into what is really going on inside of them. It reveals a great deal to me about the ambivalence their leaders must be experiencing concerning their proposed attacks against South Korea. The photo shows a group of men in uniform smiling with their fists angrily clenched. But their fists are only raised at the level of their heads. This gesture alone is very peculiar because when one is angry their arm usually shoots up on the air along with their clenched fist.
But sometimes a clenched fist signifies victory as you can see as a group of European footballers show in a BBC photo when they were victorious in a soccer match. Perhaps the North Korean soldiers were trying to depict the same sentiment in this photo but they clearly missed the mark.
Their gesture of potential victory should have been placed above their head, not contrived at the level of their head. The smiles of the Korean soldiers are also contrived. Look at the stiffness in their faces. Their cheeks are not raised. While their mouths are opened as though they appear to say something Their mouths do not depict a true and genuine smiling gesture. If that was the case, their lips would be pulled back with teeth showing. In this case their teeth are showing because they have no doubt been instructed to say something in unison.
This photo showed me that they appeared to be like automatons devoid of any real emotion at least publicly.
I remember when Diane Sawyer took her ABC cameras to North Korea for a television special. Apparently few if any Americans were ever allowed on North Korean soil until then. I remember how Diane remarked that the children seemed to have these continuous mask-like smiles as though they were instructed to smile for the foreign American guests as they sang and played musical instruments.
In watching the ABC special I remember noticing how these indelible smiles never changed. It was not natural. Most 3 year olds don’t have a perpetual mask like smile on their face that never changes. This can only happen if the child is told what to do. Diane even remarked in her blog after visiting with the children of how they are taught ferocious training discipline with a and indoctrination at an early age with an “almost religious fervor.”
So when North Korea recently released this press information warning of a “sacred war” against South Korea it came as no surprise that they would use such words. That dogged determination which they are indoctrinated with since childhood evidently surfaced as they vowed to carry our their effort with what can be best described in Diane Sawyer’s words reminiscent of a religious fervor.
While the North Koreans threatened to using its nuclear arms and vowed a “merciless counterattack” if southern territory is attacked again, on the other hand they have shown a cool and measured international response offering (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspections.” According to experts, part of North Korea’s tactic to keep everyone guessing and off balance in terms of what they will do next in a flip flop approach.
This inconsistent behavior is clearly reflected in the body language of their soldiers as reflected . They are told what to do and how to act and perform even though it is unnatural to the body.
When someone is truly victorious or knows they will have a victory, their arms are raised straight up on the air above their heads. Their fists may be open or clenched shut as a natural reaction as you see in the above photo. But their arms are never at the level of the head as we saw in the photo f the North Korean soldiers in a very unnatural reaction.
Maybe the Korean military leader who was no doubt in in charge of choreographing and arranging this photo had some internal doubts and concerns as to whether these soldiers could actually win a victory. Perhaps his own body language was at half mast in terms of rallying for victory. Perhaps his own insecurities were reflected as he instructed his troop to follow his lead as they no doubt parroted his incongruent partially raised clenched fist and phony smile
He obviously missed the mark on what he was trying to portray, However he did manage to provide us with a great deal of insight into his psyche and into what is probably going on in the minds of his superiors.
Numerous military analysts worldwide have said that North Korea has wielded its nuclear capability threat before but it has no way to launch a nuclear device. They may obviously know this as well . Perhaps that is why the incongruent and un natural body language depict what they really know is going on. While they can threaten all they want, if military exerts are correctm and we assume they are, thankfully they cannot deliver. That that is the message in the photo as I see it . www.drlillianglass.com
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