---
title: '"미국놈 때려잡는 군사놀이 신나요": poster in a North Korean primary school (photographed 2008)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dprk-primary-school-yankee-game-poster-2008/
description: A classroom poster shows four child figures, a nurse, a tank crewman, a soldier and a sailor, striking a helmeted head marked '=US=' in a burst of white…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Classroom poster showing children striking a figure marked as an American, with a derogatory slur in the headline. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["미국놈 때려잡는 군사놀이 신나요": poster in a North Korean primary school (photographed 2008)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dprk-primary-school-yankee-game-poster-2008.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dprk-primary-school-yankee-game-poster-2008.jpg)

# "미국놈 때려잡는 군사놀이 신나요": poster in a North Korean primary school (photographed 2008)

A classroom poster shows four child figures, a nurse, a tank crewman, a soldier and a sailor, striking a helmeted head marked '=US=' in a burst of white, under the headline 'Playing soldiers, beating up the American bastard: isn't it fun?'. The tell is the derogatory tag '미국놈' ('American fellow', with the pejorative 놈) paired with violence presented to children as a game: name-calling aimed at a young audience.

## Text on the object

Original (Korean) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
미국놈 때려 잡는 군사놀이 신나요
[on the helmet:] =US=
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Isn't it fun, the military game of beating down the American bastard?
[on the helmet:] =US=
```

The first two words are in black and the last words in blue on the sheet. 놈 is a pejorative noun for a man ('bastard', 'fellow'); the translation keeps that register. Translation by machine, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← 'Mission Accomplished' banner on USS Abraham Lincoln](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mission-accomplished-banner-2003/) [Putting America to Work (Recovery Act road-work sign) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/arra-putting-america-to-work-sign-2009/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)