hello. my name is im yi soo, though i am formally known as the democratic people’s republic of korea, or simply north korea. any work.
⤷ things about me
my pronouns are he/him, so please refer to me as such.
formally, my birthday is september ninth. i do, however, hold the fifteenth of august close to me as well.
contrary to popular belief, i am indeed old enough to consume alcohol.
this should be enough, right?
be encouraged to ask about any aspects of my culture or history that you may be interested in. i quite appreciate others taking interest in things i am familiar with. i said “interest” twice in one paragraph…
sensitive topics are very much acceptable. i only ask that you be respectful when regarding such matters.
—-/゛🇰🇵 ⸝⸝.ᐟ⋆—-
ooc; if it weren’t already apparent, yes, this is the mod’s oc that is not officially affiliated with the canon hetalia or any official north korean mascots with direct affiliation to the actual country. this is primarily a fun blog for my character.
responses will be semi-serious depending on the question. i think that there’s a lot more to be said about north korea as a nation than what the western media often puts out, so it’s mainly to showcase the stuff you might not have known about the country! (and since the nature of the character is kinda serious on his own anyway, lol.)
i do not support any of the heinous actions that the actual north korean government has conducted in recent years, and i will make this clear another time: yi-soo is not his leader. he is his own person respectively, and he represents his country through all eras in time, which spans through centuries of korean history well before the world we are familiar with today.
that being said, although i am a korean living in north america and am very well researched on korean history, i have not personally lived in or experienced any time in north korea itself. korean history is my favourite little part of world history in general, and i’ll do my best to be as accurate as possible with all regarding the peninsula!!
mod uses they/them pronouns + is just a student trying to earn their associates
please refrain from sending the same question more than once. as stated above, i am a college student and as such have a considerable workload. i’ll answer all asks as soon as i can, so please be patient.
I know you have some bad blood with America but do you feel any different about Canada?
- @ask-the-north-pole
i suppose his civility is somewhat admirable, if nothing else.
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ooc;
north korea and canada had established limited diplomatic relations in 2001, though they have not made any progress to strengthen those ties since. nine years later, canada suspended full diplomatic relations with north korea entirely due to its destabilizing nuclear activity. it was overall just a rough time for north korea’s international ties in the early 2010s. now, canada chooses not to interact with the nation’s government very closely, and exercises caution when doing so. canada and south korea, on the other hand, are quite close… hm. also your oc is adorable awh
yeahh i doubt an old soul such as himself would take a liking to stuff like that. things attempting to stylize a real-life thing unsettle him a bit lmao. i find it kinda endearing in a way how north korean studios have attempted to dip their toes into the field of animation, even if it does come out looking a little… iffy… but to each their own.
hi sir :) i know your nation shares a border with china. do you get to visit him ever?
i visit him periodically. recently, we haven’t visited as much for a reason i do not know. he’s very difficult to read…
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ooc; china and north korea have shared a very close alliance since the inception of the dprk, though nowadays their relationship is rather strange due to north korea’s continual reliance on china as its primary economic lifeline, with china getting almost nothing in return. i feel as if with the personifications, china cares, but is rather fed up with north’s using of him as a sort of crutch. they’ve got a lot of shared histories, too! hopefully this makes enough sense!
Saw the last ask you answered and have a similar question but for America, since he is definitely... something when it comes to foreign interventions and wars. How do you feel about him?
he should stop pretending he understands everything.
he persists on being the world’s hero, but…
…do heroes rip loved ones apart and leave them bleeding?
america smiles too much for someone who treats others like pieces on a board.
at the end of the day, though, guess he isn’t the only one.
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ooc; i felt so bad that i hadn’t answered this ask in an entire month that i made sure to give you quality AND quantity to make up for it. hopefully this will suffice… sorry, anon 😭
just like the ask regarding japan, id like to leave much of this up to personal interpretation, but i shall still clarify a bit/provide some historical context to everything.
so, the decision to divide Korea was made by two US officials in a very hasty manner, with the line drawn on a national geographic map and the officials in question knowing little to nothing about the country. i represented this with the little comic above, and kind of wanted to communicate with the last panel that the USA wasn’t the sole “bad” in the situation, and deep down North knows this. In the late 19th century, Tsarist Russia and Imperial Japan actually formed a plan to divide Korea along the exact line that the USA and USSR later designated as the 38th parallel, hence why i included Japan in the last panel. id highly recommend doing some more research into the topic, everyone was very morally grey in the creation of divided Korea.
it… really depends. after the war with my brother, many of them came to my aid. only later did i realize that this was mostly a formality.
some of them, however, still bother to say hello from time to time.
ooc; in north’s eyes, the nations that were communist when he first met them are probably still communist in his mind.
Czechoslovakia provided substantial aid and support to North Korea both before and after the Korean War, helping the nation rebuild with its humanitarian and economic aid. After the war ceased, Czechoslovakia offered medical help, training services, and machinery to the young nation. It was even the third-largest donor to North Korea in the 1950s in addition to being one of the first nations to recognize the DPRK as a country. though relations have mostly ceased since then, Czechia still remains one of the only Western-aligned countries to have an embassy in North Korea, with minimal yet civilized affairs happening now.
i know this ask wasn’t exactly about Czechia, but while North Korea does have ties with other currently Communist nations like China and Vietnam, those didn’t strike me as quite as,, oddly wholesome(?) as its relations with Czechia did. after the abolition of communism in most of Europe, North Korea saw a significant decrease in allies and aid (for valid reason, if we’re being honest). yet Czechia remains sort of neutral on its stance in regards to the still Communist country, retaining its embassy and diplomacy with North Korea. (that isn’t to say that other nations don’t have similar relationships to the Northern half of the peninsula either, but this one stood out to me)
in short terms, theyre pretty good acquaintances that are surprisingly nice to each other. thanks for the ask, i enjoyed overcomplicating it
also yes i know that Czechia isnt Communist anymore, i kind of meant this to be an example of a nation that is now not aligned with North Korea’s government system that still is on reasonable grounds with them. it got muddled along the way just a tiny bit but,, i hope this was okay,,
guys im honestly so sorry that i haven’t responded to many asks, i have some rotting in my inbox that i have not gotten to yet, mainly due to my workload at school as well as some personal stuff （ ; ; ）i promise i am thinking about you guys and will respond eventually! as always, have an amazing day/night ♡
i don’t have one in particular, but i often prefer lighter dishes over those with an overabundance of meat. perhaps it is partially because i haven’t really grown accustomed to anything else…
…though sometimes i find myself yearning for something reminiscent of a simpler time.
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ooc; thanks for the ask! tang yuan is actually a Chinese dish, but it is often eaten at Lunar New Year celebrations and notably traces its roots back to, well,,, a simpler time. i think that North shares more nostalgic feelings with China and the rest of the far East than he realizes.
I'm very interested in your attitude towards certain nations, but most of all I'm interested in your attitude towards Japan. Hmm, you and him have... to put it mildly, not an easy history. How do you feel about him? Do you hold some kind of grudge, or are you not the type to hold a grudge?
i typically wouldn’t hold a meaningless grudge, but japan is a special case in this sense.
his past actions were cruel and irreversible. no matter how he tries covering this now with novel tourist attractions and kind words, it will never erase the fear he inflicted upon us.
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ooc; Japanese rule was incredibly damaging to the Korean people at the time and still remains a very dark point in history for both North and South Korea. honestly, i can understand why North Korea, both in character and in real life, holds such a massive grudge against Japan. i do believe that Japan has genuinely tried to make a change over the past few years, but their integrity and accountability for their own history has yet to be truly certain. i’ll leave most of his response to interpretation though. id highly recommend looking into history on Korea under Japanese rule (in addition to Taiwan and China!) further, it’s really interesting stuff! also, i want to clarify once again that Yi-soo’s responses are not exactly mine and he will paint himself in a light that often displays him as the victim. anyway, thanks for the ask ♡
Do you have a have favorite film form your country? Personally I love Pulgasari!
we certainly had methods of making that one.
as for my personal favourite, it is probably The Other Side Of The Mountain. though it has been awhile, i found it relatable to my own experiences upon initial watch.
ooc; heavy agreement with north that this is my favourite too! the acting is kinda…questionable, but i really did find the story compelling. seeing a Korean War film from a perspective that we often don’t consider is interesting indeed. or maybe i just enjoy Korean War cinema as a whole, lol. this film in particular also had foreign funding, which may have also been a factor. id be interested in knowing what methods were used to acquire this..! anyway, Pulgasari is great too, though unfortunately the creation of it was not in the best interest of most, as South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and actor Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to create it. overall, it’s really fascinating how North Korea’s film industry is still kinda afloat.
