Last week, the Daily NK (from Seoul) published an article by Kang Mi Jin about "Loanwords frequently appearing in the Rodong Sinmun" (11/25/16), South Korean original here. Rodong Sinmun is the official newspaper of the North Korean Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
A source in Ryanggang Province told Daily NK on November 21 that the authorities have been delivering public lectures on the need to “actively fight to eradicate the bad habit of using foreign languages, including words of Japanese origin and the language of the puppet regime (South Korea)." However, many have pointed out the increasingly frequent usage of foreign words in the Rodong Sinmun.
Haewon Cho notes:
As written in the article, the North Korean government has tried to eradicate bad habits of language use (e.g., Japanese loanwords, South Korean language, and non-standard expressions that are not listed in the official language dictionary). However, many "bad" expressions are still used in North Korea, including state-run publications. The following excerpt from The Korean Language: Structure, Use and Context, written by Jae Jung Song, may be helpful for understanding borrowings into North Korean from various sources:
Another area in which Standard South Korean and Standard North Korean deviate considerably from each other concerns loanwords. North Korean loanwords (that is, those which have survived North Korea's nativization drive) tend to reflect Russian or Japanese influence and South Korean loanwords English influence, e.g., (Standard South Korean preceding Standard North Korean) khep versus koppu 'cup', thayngkhu versus ttankhu 'tank', and paylensu versus palansu 'balance'. (p.172).
Here are the five questionable words mentioned in the article (with Yale Romanization):
"gopu (cup)" ‘고뿌 koppwu –> from Japanese’ (컵 khep –> a loan word borrowed from English, used in South Korea)
"zak (zipper)" ‘자크 cakhu –> from Japanese’ (지퍼 ciphe–> a loan word borrowed from English, used in South Korea)
"hama (hammer)" ‘함마 hamma –> from Japanese’ (해머 hayme, a loan word borrowed from English, used in South Korea)
"rice box (lunchbox)" ‘밥곽 papkwak –> used by North Korean people, but not listed in the official North Korean dictionary’ (도시락 tosilak in South Korea)
"rice bowl (rice-washing bowl)" ‘쌀함박 ssalhampak –> used by North Korean people, but not listed in the official North Korean dictionary’ (이남박 inampak in South Korea)
For koppwu, we have the following note in the Wikipedia article on Japanese gairaigo ("loan / borrowed words") that shows how:
… cognates or etymologically related words from different languages may be borrowed and sometimes used synonymously or sometimes used distinctly.
The most common basic example is kappu (カップ?, cup (with handle), mug) from English cup versus earlier koppu (コップ?, cup (without handle), tumbler) from Dutch kop or Portuguese copo, where they are used distinctly. A more technical example is sorubitōru (ソルビトール?) (English sorbitol) versus sorubitto (ソルビット?) (German Sorbit), used synonymously.
By chance, the last sentence in the Korean version of the article (missing from the English) mentions the Central Committee, called dang jung-ang 당 중앙, which is simply the Sino-Korean reading of Chinese dǎng zhōngyāng 党中央 (Party Central Committee).
The differences between North Korean and South Korean have in certain respects become so dramatic that some would think of them as two distinct languages:
"Is Korean diverging into two languages?" (11/6/14)
[h.t. Michael Rank; thanks to Jichang Lulu]