Spot the Difference: North Korea Photoshops Kim Jong-il Funeral

North Korea’s state-controlled media goes to rigorous lengths to control the dissemination of information. As the only source of news within the isolated nation, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has long focused on glorifying the ruling Kim dynasty.

Yet sometimes, even the KCNA slips up. According to the two images above, a spot of Photoshopping isn’t out of the question for the government mouthpiece. The top image was snapped by Japanese agency Kyodo, while the bottom image was later released by the KCNA to foreign news outlets.

The main difference isn’t hard to spot: a camera crew features on the left of the Japanese photo, while in the ‘official’ KCNA image the camera crew has been digitally purged, replaced by white blobs of what purports to be snow.

This sneaky bit of editing was first spotted by a Reuters editor, and it’s a chilling illustration of just how much effort goes into controlling information in North Korea. The snow is also brighter and purer in KCNA’s image, though this could be down to different settings on each photographer’s camera. The North Korean image certainly looks ‘cleaner.’

So why remove a fairly innocuous camera crew in this way? It seems baffling, but North Korea is probably keen to show the Kim Jong-il funeral isn’t a media circus. Much better to present Kim’s funeral as a massive and spontaneous outpouring of grief from the North Korean people. Reuters says:

“This combination picture of two handout images from KCNA shows a limousine with a portrait of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il leading his funeral procession in Pyongyang December 28 2011. In the top picture released by Kyodo, a group of men is seen on the left side of the picture. In the bottom picture which was sent directly to Reuters by KCNA, the group is missing. Reuters now believes the bottom picture was altered by KCNA.”

Interesting (and also sinister)!

Of course, North Korea and Photoshop have a history. In 2008, a photograph of Kim Jong-il with soldiers was found to be a hoax, after it was noticed Kim’s shadow was cast at a different angle to the shadows of soldiers stood either side of him.