The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United States entered the conflict in July of that year, fighting on South Korea’s side. Though the active fighting lasted only three years, the war’s death toll was staggering. Between three and five million people were killed, with roughly 70% of those being civilians. North Korea alone lost an estimated 25% of its entire population.
American forces dropped approximately 635,000 tons of explosives on North Korea during the war, including 32,000 tons of napalm. The bombing campaign leveled cities, destroyed infrastructure, and left deep scars across the country. North Korean leader Kim Il-sung used the destruction as the foundation for a sweeping propaganda campaign, portraying Americans as bloodthirsty aggressors committing genocide against the Korean people.
The propaganda produced during and after the war was graphic and deliberate. Posters and paintings showed American soldiers committing acts of extreme violence — pulling teeth from Korean women, burning civilians alive, and torturing prisoners. These images were not subtle. They were designed to provoke outrage and sustain hatred toward the United States long after the ceasefire.
Kim Il-sung’s government presented these depictions not as artistic exaggeration but as historical documentation. The North Korean state insisted that American troops carried out systematic massacres and acts of torture against civilians throughout the war. These claims formed the core of the country’s official wartime narrative.
The propaganda extended to depictions of children and families being torn apart. Images showed mothers struggling against soldiers who seized their babies, children weeping for missing parents, and infants dangled over wells. These scenes were created to make the American military appear not just violent but deliberately cruel toward the most vulnerable.
One of the most specific claims embedded in North Korean propaganda centers on the town of Sinchon. North Korea alleges that 35,000 people — roughly a quarter of the local population — were massacred there by American forces during the war. To cement this narrative, the government built the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities, which displays paintings and photographs depicting mass killings and torture attributed to U.S. soldiers.
Even after the 1953 armistice, Kim Il-sung continued producing propaganda that framed the United States as a warmongering nation eager to restart the conflict. Anti-American messaging was woven into North Korean culture at every level — displayed in public spaces, taught in schools, and aimed directly at children. The posters below, many featuring stark slogans, reflect just how central this messaging remained to the North Korean state’s identity.
