A cartoon has emerged showing how North Korea has been using anti-American propaganda on young people since the 1960s.

The children’s show features a student falling asleep at his desk and dreaming of fighting the US military. It is believed the programme was produced after the Korean War, which saw America rush to the defence of South Korea after the North invaded.

The footage has resurfaced with tensions between Pyongyang and Washington at their highest in decades.

It shows invading US flotation tanks being sunk by schoolchildren operating rocket launchers made out of pencils and protractors.

north-korea-cartoon-0.jpg, by Thomas Embury Dennis (Daily Mail screengrab)

While the use of cartoons as propaganda begun under North Korea’s first dictator, Kim Il-sung, his grandson and current leader, Kim Jong-un, continues to push an anti-West message to children.

“Squirrel and Hedgehog” is a long-running animated TV show produced by the state-run SEK studios. It focuses on the animal inhabitants of a place called Flower Hill, who must fight off weasels, which represent Japan, and wolves, who depict the US.

It’s a classic,” a North Korea guide told the Los Angeles Times. “Everyone knows Squirrel and Hedgehog.”

Kim also reportedly had an old cartoon about a child warrior fighting off foreign invaders, called “The Boy General”, remade a decade after the last episode.

It was watched by hundreds of people at a public viewing party in Pyongyang, Vice reported.

North Korea continues to release videos depicting the destruction of America. Recent footage has used computer generated graphics to show its military blowing up the White House.

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