It's interesting watching media reference to Korea from the 60s to the 80s, they very, very rarely do, but when they do, the north isn't even mentioned and the south is full of depictions like how the west portrays the north today.

It's kind of like how Saudi Arabia is seen by the west today, a "ally" that constantly commits human rights violations, but those are just "unfortunately how things are" rather than how they react when that stuff happens in Bad Guy Country.