In this study I have analysed the critical expressions in Rodong Sinmun, the sole official daily newspaper in North Korea. In every article on South Korea or the United States we can find a diverse range of critical expressions, and the authors intentionally utilise at least one critical expression for every use of paraphrase in articles about their opponents. The readers of this newspaper are not only North Korean people, but also their opponents, i.e. the ‘hidden readers’. For these reasons, the intensity of the critical expressions depends on the political and diplomatic situation in North Korea at the time of writing.