I have always been aware of North Korea, despite it being a remote and fairly small country. As a child I found the North Korean mass gymnastics shows and the ‘human moving pictures’ really beautiful and fascinating. They were occasionally shown on television in Sweden.
Every part of this picture is made by dancers
or children displaying differently coloured cards…
I was aware that the country that these impressive spectacles came from was ‘Korea’, but I did not realise at the time that the country was in fact split in two.

In Sweden, for some strange reason, it was not unusual for infertile couples to adopt (South) Korean babies.
Ignorant of politics and geography I assumed that these children came from the same country as the mass-games and a really pretty Korean doll that I owned. All were referred to as ‘Korean’ so how was one to know the difference?

North Korean Embassy

When I was eight or nine perhaps, a massive crumbling (but quite elegant) house in my neighbourhood was bought by North Koreans to become their new embassy in Sweden. The house had stood empty and neglected for many years. Suddenly it was bustling with life.

It was then that I realised there were two Koreas. My affluent and politically conservative neighbours started making comments about ‘communists’ and references to the (quite correct) perception that Sweden was giving third world socialist dictatorships far too much aid… People commented: ‘With all the aid we send to that country, we may as well have given them the building for free! It was paid for with aid-money anyway… ”
This is the low-tech way in which the moving
pictures are created. Oops, wrong card!
I thought the new inhabitants of the building were quite industrious though. They repaired the house themselves in their spare time, rather than bringing in workers. Little by little the house’s appearance improved. A year later it looked pretty impressive. The Koreans in the garden smiled at passers-by and the presence of the new embassy did not generate any noticeable extra traffic. (In fact, you hardly ever saw anybody going in our out.) I could not see why people were so negative.

Another interesting fact was that unlike other embassies in the area, the North Korean embassy did not use large black luxury cars to travel around. At the front of the building were parked some very ordinary looking cars with diplomatic number plates.

The Dark Side of the DPRK

I spent quite a bit of time in Japan in the early nineties because my father lived there. Japan is not exactly North Korea’s biggest admirer and in the Japanese English language media you could read speculations (later confirmed) that North Korean commandos had abducted Japanese citizens (even teenagers!) from the Japanese mainland.
Megumi, a school girl who
was kidnapped from Japan.
Also, it was well known that much of Japanese drug traffic and Pachinko (gambling) parlours in Japan were run by expat North Koreans. The profit that was made from these activities was subsequently sent back to North Korea.

Strange! Funds from the most disgusting types of capitalist activities used to support a communist country? How odd! By now, Eastern Europe was beginning to open up. Communism was exposed as a failed, unworkable political theory. Eastern Europeans, if asked, would normally say that they never believed much in communism even before the fall of the wall. (Much like most Germans said after the fall of Nazism… But if nobody believes in it, how does it hold up year after year?)

In North Korea the state of affairs appeared to be the opposite. People there appeared to be very committed believers in Communism and in the greatness of their leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Even the large and vocal group of Koreans in Japan were committed believers in the Great Leader, his Juche philosophy and communism in general.
Another card display…
Kim Jong Il, the ‘Dear Leader…
Why? I was mystified and became curious… How was North Korean communism different from the failed communism in Europe? How were North Koreans able to go on as communists despite the death of the revered leader Kim Il Sung, and the really bad famine that hit the country in the mid 90s?

Information Black Spot

One odd thing about North Korea is that there is no literature produced there, no music that is sold outside of the country and there is practically no tourism there. The country is a black spot on the news arena.

Anybody who wants to travel there has to submit not only their passport to get a visa, but also a CV or university enrolment papers… Journalists of any kind will not be allowed in. Americans and South Koreans can only go there if there is a very good reason. You cannot jump on a ferry or a plane to get there if you are in Japan, despite North Korea being a fairly short boat ride away.

The only way into the country for Westerners is via train or plane from Beijing, hundreds of miles away from Seoul. It would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. For North Koreans, there is virtually no legal way out. Once in North Korea as a tourist or on business, you have to be with a guide at all times and cannot visit any part of the country that you want at will, the way that you can in practically all other countries.
Secret filming in the countryside. Somebody
lies dead, starved. People ignore it.
What is it that they are hiding? The poverty in the countryside? The fact that they allegedly grow opium on some of their best agricultural land? Stalinist style gulags? North Korea does not allow mobile phones or internet usage. They must be afraid of something; probably that un-controlled information is entering or leaving the country.

Clearly some outrageous practices are going on in North Korea. Entire families are punished for the wrongs of one member of the family; civil liberties are non-existent and the country leadership has been criminally negligent in allowing large numbers of the population to go hungry, all the while continuing to buy weapons and equipment for the army.

(The decent and responsible thing to do for the North Korean leadership would be to resign, admit failure and ask the world for help. If a country’s population is starving, that country’s leadership has failed; no excuses. But perhaps they are scared of what would happen to them. The fate of Ceusescu, Erich Honnecker and many others is probably fairly fresh on their minds.) Or are the hardships and starvation over? That is what North Korea is now saying…
The inhabitants of a collective farm
near Pyongyang. Having a day off.
North Korea has one interesting thing going for it; it is a country that tries to live out an alternative world view in a world that takes an increasingly suspicious view on such attempts. North Korea rejects the excessive consumerism and Western capitalist values that are governing almost all other countries. There are practically no other such countries in the world today.

In some interviews with North Koreans that I have seen, it appears that they are indeed aware that living conditions in other countries (including South Korea) are higher than in North Korea. However people are extremely scared of the United States and believe that almost any degree of hardship is better than having to live as ‘US Puppets’. Are their opinions well-informed or the result of explicit and/or subtle manipulation?
A grandfather explains the wicked deeds of American
soldiers as his granddaughter listens carefully…
The North Korean government is able to pick and choose what news they present in the state-controlled media. It cleverly exploits pictures from Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia (all countries that have recently in confrontation with US/UN military). Quite frankly, if I saw such pictures and was told that my country was potentially next in line I may not be too delighted either, particularly if I had been indoctrinated into think that my country’s ideology was the only correct one…

It is also clear that 1950s American soldiers doubtlessly perpetrated some rather ghastly atrocities in the Korean War; another fact that is exploited by North Korean propagandists. Most people in the West don’t know that the US virtually flattened the entire country of North Korea, and that millions of Koreans died in this war. Really, vilifying the US is not that difficult if you set your mind to it; there is plenty to build on. The North Koreans have pictures of dead pregnant women horribly deformed, of cities where not a single house is standing and of houses consciously burnt down when people were still in them. Why do such things happen?
A Pyongyang housewife in her kitchen…
I can’t help but think it sad that every single country has to be modelled on Western values to gain international acceptance. Should a country’s perceived national success really be counted against how many Starbucks there are per ten thousand inhabitants? Aren’t alternative economical models both valuable and useful? As long as such a model is what the inhabitants actually prefer, I think it is preferrable to our consumerist society.

I am aware that I may be wrong in saying that. Perhaps Western capitalism really IS the only valid and feasible modus operandi for running a country? Perhaps it is the only way of financial model that is beneficial to the largest possible group of inhabitants in a given country. However I am not yet fully convinced. There are so many flaws with Western democracy, don’t you agree?

Axis of Evil?

I like the United States but I think it is wrong to be making categorical statements that certain countries are “evil.” There is no black and white when it comes to countries. A country can have a really wicked leader but a charming people; likewise it can have a rather out-of-order population but a focussed leadership, such as in Singapore in the 1960s for example.
Grocery shopping in the Axis of Evil. The ration is
5 eggs and a chicken per person per month.
If you are going to be extremely cynical about it, North Korea probably does not have much to fear from the US, since it has no oil, and is not moslem…It does have a strategic position though; particularly from a South Korean perspective. South Korea for all intents and purposes is currently like an island. Everything going in and out has to be shipped via cargo freighters. However if the land-route was open, cargo could be shipped with ease into China or to Europe via the Trans Siberian railway.

South Korea would never instigate a war though, and currently wants a slowly, slowly paced path towards unification with it’s poor brother state. South Koreans are scared of a huge burden on their economy as witnessed in Germany.

Personality Cult

The way that people look at the leaders of North Korea; the now deceased Kim Il Sung and the new leader (his son) Kim Jong Il is not that different for how religious believers look at religious leaders and personalities.
No metro train is complete without a
picture of the Great and Dear leaders…!
The indoctrination into ‘faith’ in the leadership, the guiding Juche philosophy and mainstream communism starts early. Every school text book, every newspaper issued, every meeting taking place contain references to the greatness of the system and the leaders. The indoctrination is so thorough that it is probably impossible not to be affected.

Propaganda?

Growing up in Sweden, I remember being told that advertising and commercial messages in Capitalist societies were the capitalist equivalent of Communist propaganda. Both were trying to make you believe something and act on it. The implicit message was that it was that both had good and bad sides to them, and could be abused.
No ads in Pyongyang’s metro, but instead some
first class propaganda murals. Impressive, aren’t they?
Who is to say that it is not a very bad thing that I am exposed on a daily basis to extremely consumerist/capitalist messages the minute I turn on the TV, open a paper or leave my house? Perhaps in a hundred years from now, the eco-system will be ruined.. People then will take a very dim view of consumerist society which brought that about…. including it’s ‘propaganda’ messages encouraging people to obtain more and more things…
Ever thought of it that way?

North Koreans stick to traditional family values, they value nature and are industrious in making do with what they have, rather than constantly buying new clothes, furniture and consumer goods. They see such behaviour as virtuous and positive. They have excellent work ethics, are well educated, well-disciplined and learn fast. All and all the country ought to have plenty going for it…

Mystical Abductions…

A North Korean pic of Megumi.
They say she committed suicide.
North Korea has abducted great numbers of foreign citizens. Particularly South Koreans, both civilians and officials, but also Japanese and possibly some US soldiers. The abductions are mysterious in that there usually are two pretty conflicting versions of events. Is one true and the other false? Is one side always lying and the other always telling the truth? Could it be that there is sometimes a fairly complicated mix of factors that play in? The strangest thing about the abductions is that there is no red thread, no logic to why a school girl was abducted from Japan, an actress for South Korea and Japanese professionals of varying age were abducted from the beaches of Japan.
Intro page for the DPRKs fast expanding
IT industry. The kids are being trained..
North Korea would state in almost all of the cases that the person defected volountarily. In some cases there was reason to believe that this could be true. Some people were ideological communists, others had messed up their personal life and wished to ‘disappear’. On the other hand, some people were undisputably snatched off a beach or captured after unintentionally crossing into North Korean waters, such as happened to hundreds of fishermen.

Some of the fishermen were returned almost immediately and said that they had been treated well. Others choose to stay and were integrated into society. One such fisherman returned to South Korea after decades in North Korea. He said that he had had a good life in the North and only left because he missed his family in South Korea. Some South Korean air-hostesses became news readers on North Korean foreign broadcasts. The film director directed a number of successful films while ‘in captivity’….
Looks like a poor third world country…
Another very mysterious case involves a South Korean teacher who simply walked into the North Korean embassy in Norway. The North Koreans said he defected and the South Koreans said that it was an incredible mistake: The man had taken a taxi to the ‘Korean Embassy’ but ended up at the ‘wrong’ embassy. Failing to notice any signs that it was in fact the embassy of a different country, the man had walked straight into a trap and was then not allowed to leave…

That somebody would not be able to spot that they are about to enter an embassy that is not that of their own country sounds too silly to be true… Surely the flag and the name outside the building would be a clue! Particularly for a teacher… And if he was indeed abducted, how did they get the man from Norway to North Korea? There must be several changes of planes on the way between the two countries. No doubt the journey also takes well over 24 hours and would involve a stay overnight while in transit.
A factory worker and her boss finish the day with a duet..
What happened to the North Korean embassy in Norway? It was closed down shortly after, as it was discovered that the diplomats were trading in cigarettes, alcohol and drugs smuggled via diplomatic channels… The same thing happened at all the other North Korean embassies in Scandinavia. Only the one in Sweden remained open after that.
A girl and her brother at the collective farm.

A Country, a Riddle…

Yet another riddle in the mystery that is North Korea! Do they have nuclear weapons? Probably… Would they use them? Probably not, unless the regime was pushed into a corner with no way out. Are they a threat to the US or Europe? Hardly! The country is the size of an average US ‘state’ or small-to-mid-sized European Ccountry. If anybody is under threat from them it is South Korea and Japan.

Why did I write about this…?

This is what will happen to the US if
it tries invading. Best leave them alone…! In case you are wondering what on Earth posessed me to write about North Korea; Well I saw a really interesting documentary about it on TV. It is a ‘neutral’ film - no clear political message, just the story of six months in the lives of two young gymnasts who perform in the mass games. The British film makers swear they weren’t censored and that they were able to film anything they wanted that was related to the two gymnasts.

Most of all this documentary shows North Koreans as normal people trying to get on with life; not robotic fanatics. Watch out for some heavy-duty anti-American slogans though. Mind you, they have never met an American and are probably only repeating what they’ve heard thousands of times. A quick check online reveals that “A State of Mind” is available here at BT Junkie. Before you can download it, you need to install a bittorrent client though.


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