I am reading the popular and inspiring book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond, thinking about a state and its people. Fear and violence has been the essential tool for a state to control its own people or even subjugate other people. It has been universal, although the degree can differ greatly depending on the time and the place.
QuoteIgnorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence.
The following YouTube video is very informative in sketching what ordinary North Koreans have been educated to fear.
Here in S. Korea, I was the same, incessantly reminded of a sudden invasion from N. Korea. N. Korean leaders fear any possible attack from the U.S., as much as some ordinary Americans did with the Soviet Union and now with N. Korea.
The first engagement of the U.S. with the Korean problem (or issue) traces back to as early as 1905, when the secret, Taft–Katsura agreement was made between the U.S. and Japan, just after the Russo-Japanese war. A very few Americans may be familiar with this historical context regarding not only the conflicts between S. and N. Korea, but broadly the Pacific war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Katsura_agreementbarbie~~