The latest propaganda campaign from a radical New York City-based pro-North Korea nonprofit bizarrely pitches the Hermit Kingdom as a utopia where housing is free.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs your rent due? Not in North Korea,\u201d Nodutdol\u2019s April 1 Instagram post<\/a> boasts to its 42,000 followers, alongside an idyllic picture of children happily playing in the snow in front of a modern, residential apartment building that looks strikingly American-style.<\/p>\n Nodutdol, a Midtown-based group whose name means stepping stone in Korean, has worked to radicalize American leftists<\/a> into supporting North Korea through their mutual hatred of \u201cUS imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n Nodutdol\u2019s April 1 Instagram post boasts about the Hermit Kingdom\u2019s free housing to its 42,000 followers. Nodutdol \/Instagram<\/p>\n The social media post goes on to slam US capitalism for \u201cmanufacturing a housing crisis at home.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThings don\u2019t have to be this way, and socialist countries are proof of that,\u201d it says before showing images of 163,000 recently built housing units in capital Pyongyang and rural areas across the country.<\/p>\n But in reality, housing in the land of dictator Kim Jong Un is built by the state and allocated based on job, status and loyalty to the regime \u2014 with organizations like Human Rights Watch finding that \u201cthe North Korean government systematically violates\u2026the right to adequate standard of living.\u201d<\/p>\n While military and party officials \u2014 including Ri Chun Hi, the country\u2019s most prolific state propaganda anchor, known as \u201cthe pink lady,\u201d who received a luxury home<\/a> in 2022 \u2014 are granted preferential housing, ordinary people typically get the bottom of the barrel, with decrepit homes that often lack electricity.<\/p>\n Construction tends to be rushed for political optics, leaving people living in unfinished or unsafe buildings, and deadly apartment collapses have occasionally made the news despite tight media control \u2014 such as the 2014 collapse of a 23-story building in Pyongyang, which killed more than 160 people.<\/p>\n The propaganda campaign seemed too much even for some of Nodutdol\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n Most housing in North Korea looks less like Shangri-La and more like the slums. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n The group bragged about the 113,000 rural units recently built, in addition to another 50,000 in the capital city. Nodutdol \/Instagram<\/p>\n In reality, the rural housing units look more like these decrepit buildings in the middle of crops in Kaesong. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really trying to support this platform \u2026 but there is some clear misinformation going on,\u201d commented one Instagram user.<\/p>\n Others, meanwhile, didn\u2019t seem to see through the smoke and mirrors.<\/p>\n \u201cMe crying as I pay my rent,\u201d lamented a commenter.<\/p>\n Nodutdol runs out of the sprawling Midtown digs<\/a> of the People\u2019s Forum on West 37th Street, where it regularly hosts seemingly innocuous events like its \u201cKimchi Bowl\u201d year-end fundraiser, while peddling pro-Noko propaganda.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The under the radar organization has close ties to the nonprofit run by tech millionaire\u00a0Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans\u2019 Code Pink. T<\/p>\n hat group was part of the recent \u201cNuestra America\u201d convoy that saw hundreds of tone-deaf radicals meet with the communist regime in Havana, Cuba \u2014 where they stayed in 5-star hotels while the island nation was in crisis.<\/p>\n Code Pink and the People\u2019s Forum have been linked to\u00a0Chinese influence operations<\/a>\u00a0in a State Department report to Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of Nodutdol\u2019s central demands is putting an end to the US-South Korea alliance. It also pushes for the reunification of North and South Korea and \u201cfor a world free of\u00a0imperialism.\u201d <\/p>\n Nodutdol did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t