『투사신문 』을 통해 본 재북 남로당계의 선전 활동–1948~50년을 중심으로 (Propaganda actions taken by the South Korean Labor Party members in North Korea, examined through the The Warrior Newspaper(Tusa Shinmun) from 1948~1950)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국역사연구회
· 수록지 정보 : 역사와 현실 / 134호 / 229 ~ 273페이지
· 저자명 : 허현주

초록

이 연구는 미군 노획문서철에 수집된 『투사신문』의 전체 지면을 최초로 분석해 재북 남로당계와 월북 문화인들이 신문의 발행 주체였음을 밝혔다. 북한의 남한 전문 선전 매체로서 『투사신문』은 두 가지 핵심적인 선전 전략을 구사했다. 첫째, 여순사건과 빨치산 활동을 '조선민주주의인민공화국 지지 투쟁'으로 해석하며 남한 내 무장투쟁의 역량을 과대 선전했다. 둘째, 남북한 사회상을 이분법적으로 대비함으로써 북한 체제의 우월성을 부각했다. 이러한 선전은 북한에 독자적 기반이 없던 재북 남로당계가 남한 혁명의 책임자로서 정치적 위상을 확보하려는 시도였다.
월북 문화인들은 남북한 사회상을 직접 대비하는 선전의 핵심 주체였다. 분단과 내전을 단호히 반대했던 오기영이 남북 간 적대와 갈등을 조장하는 선전에 가담한 것처럼, 냉전과 분단은 문화인들의 정체성과 활동을 극단적 대립 구도로 수렴시켰다. 문화인의 월북과 선전 참여는 동원이나 강제의 틀로만 해석될 수 없는, 당시 냉전과 분단이란 현실 속 스스로 선택한 정치적 실천이었다. 특히 1948년 단독정부 수립 이후 남한 내 중도적 공간의 급격한 축소와 정치적 탄압은 월북 문화인이 이분법적 세계관 형성을 내면화하는 토대가 되었다. 『투사신문』의 선전은 6·25 전쟁 이전부터 북한 사회에서 남한에 대한 적대적 재현이 체계적으로 생산되고 유포되었음을 보여준다. 분단은 서로에 대한 상반된 이미지를 구축하는 과정이었으며, 월경인이 주체가 된 체계적 선전 활동은 전쟁 이전부터 심리전의 양상을 띠었다.

영어초록

Analyzed in this article is the full text of The Warrior Newspaper(Tusa Shinmun), secured in the archive of documents captured and collected by the U.S. Army. This effort of the author marks the first time this material was ever examined. And according to research, it does seem that the South Korean Labor Party members who were residing in North Korea, and certain culture personnel who had earlier moved over to the North, were behind the publication of this newspaper.
The Warrior Newspaper was a North Korean media which served primarily as an anti-South Korea propaganda journalism, and it employed two major propaganda strategies. First, the newspaper highlighted the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident and the Partisan activities in South Korea as a valiant struggle for the Joseon Democratic People Republic(North Korea). And as a media, it put an extreme focus on propagating the stunning accomplishments of the armed struggle inside South Korea. Then secondly, the newspaper created dichotomous comparisons between North and South Koreas, with the intention to argue that North Korea was immensely better than the South. It was also designed that way so that the South Korean Labor Party line, which had no independent support base in North Korea, could elevate their political status as entities in charge of the supposedly successful South Korean Revolution.
Meanwhile, the culture personnel who chose to live in North Korea were crucial in the task of making comparisons between both Koreas. The case of Oh Gi-yeong, who had earlier adamantly opposed division and a civil war but later ironically joined the propaganda projects designed to further breed animosity and conflict between the two Koreas, vividly shows us that the political situation of the time was leading the culture personnel in North Korea to limit their actions and narrow their identity to become mere beings placed in an extreme standoff situation. Their move to the North, or their joining the propaganda effort were not a result of simple coercion. They were never just mobilized or forced to do it, as it was their own political choice to do so, in a Cold War situation and within a reality of a divided peninsula.
After the foundation of the South Korean government in 1948, neutral ground within the South Korean society considerably shrank, and ensuing political oppression of the opposition served as a reason and an excuse for the culture personnel who had already moved to the North, to form their own dichotomous perspective. The propaganda messages that we can find from The Warrior Newspaper shows us that even before the Korean War a hostile notion toward South Korea had been being systemically produced and later circulating inside the North Korean society. The division of the Korean peninsula was -in a way- a process during which both Koreas formed a particular image of the other, and systematic propaganda overtaken by personnel who ‘chose the other side’ manifested itself as sort of psychological warfare even before the war began.

참고자료

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