North Korean Unicorns: Key Points
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The November 2012 North Korean “unicorn lair” announcement sparked international ridicule, but the actual claim was more nuanced than Western headlines suggested.
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In Korean folklore, the “kirin” is mistranslated as “unicorn” but is actually a composite beast symbolizing divine approval of rulers, not a European-style fantasy horse.
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The KCNA actually reported discovering an archaeological site with a carved rock marking where King Tongmyong allegedly kept his kirin, not an actual magical creature.
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Western media relentlessly mocked the story, with few outlets explaining the cultural context or clarifying the actual claims.
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Some analysts suggest the mistranslation may have been deliberate to make North Korea appear irrational and justify sanctions and military posturing.
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The incident demonstrates how translation choices and sensationalism can distort narratives about adversarial nations for political purposes.
Introduction
In November 2012, the Korean Central News Agency, run by North Korea, made a statement that the world laughed at and disbelieved (Alexander, 2015). The news story said that archaeologists had found a unicorn den that was connected to King Tongmyong, who started the Korean country of Koguryo in the past. This claim, which seemed strange at first, went viral and supported negative ideas in the West about North Korean propaganda and the regime’s supposed disconnect from reality. But there is more to this story than what the shocking headlines said. It makes me wonder about translation, cultural context, and the part that intentional misrepresentation might play in how people think about the isolated nation.
Unicorn Archaeology in North Korea
To grasp the 2012 statement, it’s vital to see how unicorns are viewed in Korean folklore, which is very different from the Western view. The word “unicorn” is often used to describe the creature called “kirin” or “qilin” in Korean mythology, but it doesn’t look much like the white horse-like creatures of European mythology. It is a mixed-up animal that shows up in many East Asian cultures. Its body looks like a deer, its tail like an ox, its hooves like a horse, and it has a single horn sticking out of its head. People see this creature as a lucky sign because it is linked to wise leaders, wealth, and good luck. It often shows up in stories about famous kings and important historical events. Kirin are not just mythical animals; in Korean folklore, their appearance means that God agrees with a ruler’s authority. This characteristic makes them a powerful political and cultural symbol.
The announcement from the Korean Central News Agency in November 2012 was not nearly as crazy as the Western media made it sound, but it still had some parts that seemed like they were meant to spread propaganda to people outside of Korea. The History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences recently reconfirmed the location of King Tongmyong’s unicorn lair, according to the KCNA. The lair lies approximately 200 meters away from a temple in Pyongyang. According to the story, a rectangular rock with the words “Unicorn Lair” carved into it had been found. The spot showed where King Tongmyong was said to have kept his kirin. Instead of saying they had found a real unicorn or its remains, the statement was mostly about an archaeological site linked to a legendary ruler. The announcement was done to highlight North Korea’s history and the ancient roots of Korean culture. North Korea probably thought the news was important because it linked the country to ancient kingdoms and mythological stories to boost national pride and the legitimacy of the Korean state.
Alexander (2015) says that the site of Kiringul is important in Korean mythology because it is said that King Tongmyong, who started the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, visited it and rode a kirin, a creature in Korean mythology that looks like a horse. Despite the excitement surrounding the news, the supposed lair did not yield any dead or alive kirins (Alexander, 2015). Brenman and Colasuonno (2020) report that North Korea discovered a rock with inscriptions in 2012, confirming the existence of the unicorn.
Impact
As soon as the news came out, people around the world laughed it off. News outlets all over the world saw it as proof that North Korea’s marketing machine had gone crazy. Articles with variations on the title “North Korea Claims to Find Unicorn Lair” were all over the news, and artists used the story as an easy way to make fun of the regime’s stupidity. There were many jokes and memes on social media about North Korean unicorns, and many commenters used the story to support ideas that the country is cut off from the real world and its people are easily fooled. The story became popular so quickly that it overshadowed more important news about North Korea’s nuclear program and human rights situation. This shows how one story can change how people around the world think about something. Western news sites didn’t take the time to explain the kirin’s cultural meaning or make it clear that North Korea hadn’t really said it had found a magical creature. Instead, they went with the more shocking interpretation that would get more clicks and shares.
A basic misunderstanding largely triggered the international media frenzy that followed the KCNA statement. Western news outlets laughed at North Korea’s claim that their scientists had found a cave where unicorns lived, which was reported by North Korean state media (Kim, 2017). But Kim (2017) stresses that KCNA only said they found an ancient site called “kirin kul” (kirin cave) and not that the mythical creature called a kirin lived in the cave. Part of the misunderstanding came from a bad translation, since the East Asian mythical creature kirin is not the same as the Western idea of a unicorn (Kim, 2017). Fifield (2019) asserts that a translation error led to the global dissemination of the fantastic story about the unicorn’s home.
People who watch and study the world have said that the widespread misunderstanding of North Korea’s statement might not have been an accident and that Western spy agencies or media outlets might have done it on purpose. The argument says that making fun of North Korea and saying that it is crazy and irrational is good for politics because it makes it easier to keep people behind sanctions and military threats against the government. Western governments and media can reinforce the idea that North Korea’s leaders are fundamentally disconnected from reality and cannot be seriously negotiated with by casting their announcements in the craziest possible light, even when there are more reasonable ways to look at them. This idea says that translating “kirin” as “unicorn” without understanding the cultural context and focusing on the finding of a “lair” instead of an archaeological site may have been done on purpose to make the story more powerful as propaganda against North Korea. There is no proof that the U.S. government planned a campaign of intentional mistranslations, but the trend of sensationalized news about North Korea does make us think about how translation choices and editing decisions can change the way people around the world understand each other.
Analysis
The story of the “unicorn lair” needs to be seen in the bigger picture of North Korean archaeology and how it is used for political reasons. Through changing data and mixing myths with archaeological facts, Yoo (2016) talks about how the past of North Korean archaeology shows how archaeology has been used to keep power and further nationalistic goals. Jucheism guides the interpretation of North Korea’s archaeological evidence. Yoo (2016) cites the latest discovery of “Dangun’s Tomb” as a prime example of data manipulation. Archaeological finds are always interpreted and concluded with praise for the “Great Leader” and “Great People” with “Great Civilization” (Yoo, 2016).
Fifield (2019) puts the unicorn story in its proper place by talking about the myths and propaganda surrounding Kim Jong Un and his family’s rule in North Korea. This demonstrates the manipulation of seemingly trivial news for broader propaganda objectives. The kirin mythology links ancient Korean kingship and legitimacy. These are themes that are similar to the Kim regime’s attempts to build its authority on history and mythology. It had nothing to do with unicorns.
Conclusion
In the end, the 2012 unicorn story shows more about cultural misunderstanding and information warfare between countries than it does about North Korean propaganda. Even though North Korea’s state media often exaggerates and makes up stories, the unicorn news wasn’t as crazy as it seemed in Western media when looked at in the context of Korean folklore and archaeological claims about legendary sites. Western media and viewers were quick to accept the silliest version of the story. This story shows how biases and stereotypes can affect how information is received, sometimes making it hard to understand what was actually said. The 2012 unicorn incident shows how quickly stories can be changed in today’s information world, whether it’s through intentional mistranslation, careless reporting, or just the way sensational stories spread. The story’s legacy is less about what North Korea said than how information about rival nations can be weaponized and used for political gain. It brings up important questions about media literacy and how challenging it is to understand other cultures through translation and interpretation.
References
Alexander, S. (2015). Unicorns: The Myths, Legends, & Lore. Simon and Schuster.
Brenman, V., & Colasuonno, A. (2020). The Book of the Magical Mythical Unicorn: A Unique Anthology of Esoteric Knowledge, Myths and Legends. John Hunt Publishing.
Fifield, A. (2019). The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un. Hachette UK.
Kim, S. (2017). Authority and emotions: Kim Jong Il and religious imagination in North Korean literature [Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Yoo, Y. (2016). A Story of Their Own: what happened and what is going on with North Korean archaeology? In Archaeology of the communist era: A political history of archaeology of the 20th century (pp. 275-293). Springer International Publishing.
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