North Korea's media calls for 'revolution' against 'non-socialist phenomena'

May 5 (UPI) -- North Korean state media called for a "great revolution" in the nation's literary arts amid rising concerns about "antisocialist and non-socialist phenomena" in the country.

Korean Workers' Party paper Rodong Sinmun said Wednesday the "turbulent reality" of the present calls for a "passionate and vibrant" literary arts. The statement comes a week after the 10th congress of the regime's Youth League.

Non-socialist and anti-socialist influences are likely a reference to flows of information from outside North Korea's borders, including South Korea. Defectors in the South have said watching South Korean TV shows motivated them to leave the North.

The issue of rising "anti-socialism" may have dominated the meeting last week, when Kim Jong Un was not in attendance.

A North Korean official said at the congress that a "more intensive" ideological offensive is required in order to "wipe out antisocial and non-socialist phenomena" and "establish a socialist way of life."

The statement comes after Pyongyang enacted a law that could further punish its citizens for facilitating the flow of outside information into the country.

The Rodong said Wednesday that the nation faces a "new turning point in the revolution" for the "struggle against antisocialism and non-socialism." The nation must innovate literature, film, including documentaries, and compose songs that "anyone can sing."

"It is imperative that the literary arts leads the times and inspires the masses," the North Korean newspaper said. "The revolutionary literary arts exert unparalleled power in pushing the people toward heroic struggle."

State media also stressed in a separate article the importance of "reflecting" on the "spirit of struggle" of the past.

North Koreans must remember the "Chollima" campaign of the 1950s, when workers were mobilized to factories and farms out of patriotic duty and rehabilitated the country after the 1950-53 Korean War, state media said.

Chollima means "thousand-li" horse. The campaign evoked the power of supernatural flying horses of East Asian mythology during a period when North Koreans toiled with little material reward under Kim Il Sung.