An exhibition of North Korean propaganda art featuring graphic illustrations of Ukrainian soldiers being shot dead has opened in Moscow.
The exhibition, titled Shoulder To Shoulder, was opened on October 13 to highlight decades of cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. The exhibition includes artifacts dating from the Korean War of the 1950s, up to the current partnership between the two diplomatically isolated countries.
Among the exhibits are a series of pencil sketches depicting North Korean troops fighting in Russia's Kursk region against the Ukrainian incursion into the territory.
Professor B.G. Muhn, an expert on North Korean art at Georgetown University, told RFE/RL that, in the reclusive nation, "pencil drawings depicting war remain one of North Korea's most popular art forms." Such pencil images sometimes serve as the basis for more elaborate propaganda artwork.
Muhn says the graphic violence depicted in these artworks is comparable with other, similar visual propaganda used in North Korea, as a cheap "vehicle to convey that soldiers are fighting for the nation -- in this particular case, supporting Russia, their strong ally."
The exhibition in Moscow’s Victory Museum comes on the heels of another North Korean propaganda show in the Russian capital which depicted North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russians. That exhibition closed on October 10.
The earlier exhibit only hinted at the presence of Ukrainian soldiers. In contrast, the Shoulder To Shoulder event portrays Ukrainians being killed in gruesome illustrations similar to a graphic novel.
Several of the images portray Ukrainians in grotesque caricature comparable to World War II-era propaganda imagery.
The exhibition also features supposed relics of war, including bloodstained letters and a journal with a bullet hole. Despite the graphic nature of the exhibition it is reportedly open to all ages.
Aleksander Shkolnik, the director of the Victory Museum hailed the exhibition as the culmination of eight decades of partnership between the two authoritarian countries "for the triumph of justice and kindness, and for peace on our planet."
