Ask Lemmygrad

Cuba is next door to the US and predominately speaks spanish. Spanish is a language in use by millions in the US and Europe. Ergo: No language barrier, double checking smears against Cuba for validty is rather easy.

The DPRK is far from the US and Europe. Next door are Occupied Korea (which has a vested interest and tradition of smearing free Korea) and Japan (parely apologetic about its coloial past). Furthermore, Koreans usually speak korean, korean is spoken by almost no one in the US or Europe and if, the speaker is, thanks to far reaching sanctions on the north, aligned to the south. Korean also has its own writing system. Thus the language barrier is as high as it can get between humans. Sanctioned to hell and back (can't enter most countries), far away (on the other side of the earth for US/Europe) and unique writing system + unique language => No presence in imperialist countries and barely and chance to get some. => slander stands virtually unopposed => fuck-all support

I think because the DPRK occupies a more important strategic location re: Russia and China, it has invited a much more hard line stance from liberals than Cuba has. This is also part of the reason why China intervened in the Korean War and prevented an American victory in the first place - they didn't want the US right on their border.

Comparatively, Cuba is essentially just a culture war as far as the US government is concerned. It doesn't occupy a strategic position, it doesn't have large amounts of strategic resources, and the one thing that the US really wants from it - a naval base - it gets to have whether the Cuban government likes it or not. So the international movement that has risen in support of it has gone uncontested by America, and the island itself very nearly got its relations normalized at the whim of a single president.

Because people believe the propaganda because they have less exposure to the reality (and DPRK dares to have nuclear weapons to prevent invasion and conquest)

I think its because of the Friends of Cuba movement at the time. The red scare during the Korean War was super aggressive. McCarthyism was born in this era and the agitation against support for N.Korea was intense.

With McCarthyism drying up and allowing citizens to express these views with less consequence, it allowed for better left agitation.

The Korean war was also super fucked up. Some historians believe it qualifies as a Genocide. The massacres committed by and under the supervision of the US were incredibly fucked. To allow for even a whisper of agitation for removing sanctions from N.Korea would mean allowing those conversations to come up. The natural conclusion of agitating for an open N.Korea means highlighting the countless noncombatants executed by the South Korean colonial police under the direct supervision of the US. It requires discussing the fact that 80% of all shelters in the north were obliterated.

There is a reason its called the "forgotten war".

I think the fact that many countries are mad about the DPRK having nukes probably plays a role. Also the sanctions against the DPRK have not been as effective and they haven't been in full force for as long and I would guess that has an effect. Lastly Cuba is culturally western and majority white I would not be surprised at all if that has a significant effect on how sympathetic people in the west are towards them.

Also yeah as others have said so much more propaganda.

There hasn't been as much concentrated propaganda against Cuba in recent years comparatively. There used to be a lot more when it was more an imminent threat to ruling interests in the US.

US agencies probably feel that Cuba is pretty "solved", and they don't need to worry about it unless people actually put any effort into organising about it. The UN condemning them every year is not something they particularly care about, so they just let it ride.

I don't know, but my gut says better propaganda