No more 'ice' in North Korea? All about Kim Jong Un's shocking new suppression

For most of the world, ice is a simple delicacy with a universal name. But in North Korea it has now become a matter of politics. The leader Kim Jong Un reportedly prohibited the use of the word “ice”, labeling it as a foreign influence and ordered it to be replaced with the approved terms such as eeukimo or eorumboseungi, which means “ICE confection.” According to reports of Daily NK, the move is part of a greasy campaign to purify Western and South Korean words from the country’s vocabulary, especially in the growing tourism sector. From ice to ‘eseukimo’ tour guides in North Korea are currently in intensive three-month training in Wonsan and other important tourist destinations. As part of their training, they are prohibited from using certain anglicized words, even if they speak to foreign visitors. Instead of Aiseukeurim – derived from the English word “ice cream” – guides now have to say ‘eeukimo’ or ‘eorumbosungi’. The change left some pupils surprised. “We will probably have to use strange words for foreign tourists to understand us,” one student told Daily NK and spoke anonymously because of the fear of consequences. Despite their frustrations, pupils are careful not to criticize the policy openly. “Being a tour guide is a good job, and if you say one wrong thing, you can be kicked out of the program,” another pupil explained. Whoever Eskimos is – and why the name can be controversial, the term eseukimo is derived from Eskimo, a word that is historically used to refer to indigenous peoples in the Arctic regions, including parts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia. However, the term “Eskimo” is now considered outdated and even abusive by many communities, which prefer names as Inuit or Yupik, which reflects their clear cultural identities. North Korea’s acceptance of the term raised eyebrows, with linguists indicating that it could reflect the effort of the regime to use foreign resounding words without lending directly from English. From the burgers to ‘double bread with ground beef’ under the forbidden words, the global recognized ‘hamburger’, now called Dajin-Gogi Gyeoppang, is a literal translation meaning ‘double bread with ground beef’. Even Karaoke machines were re-named, with tour guides instructed to call them on the screen. An official of the Kangwon Province, where the new beach of Wonsan is being developed, explained the rationale behind the linguistic purification: “The purpose is to teach tourism professionals to consciously use North Korean vocabulary and to avoid expressions and foreign loan words.” Why Kim Jong Un official of the Kangwon Province, where the Strandstad Wonsan is developed, is developed as a luxury resort center, the reasoning behind the collapse of the daily NC explained: ‘The goal is to teach tourism professionals to use the North Korean vocabulary and expressions while avoiding the South African expressions. The policy forms part of a broader government strategy to promote tourism, while the North Korean society is protected from cultural influences outside. By controlling language, Pyongyang hopes to control what both residents and foreign visitors hear and say. Northern Korean tourism with a political turn The training program, which began on August 21, is directly supervised by the Workers Party of Korea’s framework division. Wonsan, who hopes to become a pivot for international tourism, allegedly throws resources in the initiative, training between 20 and 30 individuals, including graduates from provincial foreign language universities and new recruits of the State General Bureau of Tourist Guidance. The three -month course covers everything from dealing with foreign tourists to clothing, professional behavior and the memorization of approved slogans and phrases.