2003 May 8

The People's Cult of North Korea

An American teaching in Seoul, Scott Fisher, last year managed to take a four-day tour of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a.k.a. North Korea, the most walled-off place on Earth, and has reported what he saw. Fascinating.

Because the North Koreans have withdrawn so totally from the rest of humanity, I wasn't sure what to expect. We're told there's famine, that millions are starving, and I wondered: how does such a broken regime keep control? How or why does anybody bother to do their jobs, ever? How can it retain anyone's loyalty?

Fisher of course gets a carefully stage managed view, seeing only what the North Koreans want him to see. He is escorted everywhere by "guides" who won't let his group alone for a moment, keeping him well screened from ordinary people, who are anyway too afraid to even say hello to him -- but the impression he comes away with is that the place is run like a cult. Surprising-to-me numbers of people seem to really believe the lies: that the DPRK is a shining beacon to the world; that they defeated the Japanese in the Second World War and the Americans in the Korean War; and that the Americans hate them because they're free. And why wouldn't they believe these things? They've heard them every day of their lives, and never a rebuttal. One of the guides (a new guy, a trainee on his first exposure to Westerners) gets genuinely angry at Fisher for a hint of doubt of the North Korean government:

His reaction was immediate and will forever serve as my personal definition of 'venomous'.

"Now you can see the lies! The lies of the American imperialists and their South Korean puppets!"

He literally spat this out. Foam flew from his lips he was so incensed.

"Someday you will discover the truth about everything! They only tell you lies! Lies!"

"Ah, yes Mr. Huk, there are many lies in the world. I hope I'm there when you discover the truth also."

I decided to have a little fun. My words had him bug-eyed with rage. Veins popped from his forehead.

"Me?! It is YOU who needs to discover the truth. I already know the truth!" [+]

Anyone who's wandered the more ideological halls of the blogosphere should have no difficulty recognizing the apoplexy of a zealot confronted by a smug skeptic.

Of course, there's no way to know what fraction of the North Korean population is composed of fanatical Mr. Huks, but I'm guessing there does not need to be that many to keep the pragmatic mass in line. The key point is that Mr Huks exist.

The other thing that surprised me a bit is how pretty the place is. I suppose I expected more cracked concrete, smoke, and dismal buildings: instead the avenues of Pyongyang seem to be broad, tree-lined, and empty; the countryside, green, rolling and empty. (Empty of course being its own kind of problem, but a picturesque one.) One wonders how carefully the tour group's routes were chosen, and whether the scenes are greatly different a few blocks over. The impression I get from Fisher is that his group was relatively ordinary Japanese, Chinese and Americans -- nobody particularly important enough to put on a special show for.

Again, courtesy MetaFilter.

Comments

Did you see the Frontline about N. Korea?

Truly frightening. I had no idea. I think you are right. It is a cult.

They interviewed Madeleine Albright and showed a clip of one of her visits there. Kim Jong Il had her driven to an empty coliseum. The parking was deserted; there was no peep.

She entered the coliseum, the lights went on, and the entire place was full of people who cheered. And then they put on a bizarre performance for her.

The most bizarre thing was that they had hundreds? thousands? of people in the rows facing her all coordinated to hold up paper signs like they do in our stadiums. But these paper signs were coordinated on a massive scale. They would do representations of artwork. Massive scenes. The most amazing thing... they recreated an image of a rocket, the kind that N Korea has that could feasibly hit the US, and not only that, but recreated an image of that rocket taking off.

Moving picture. So well done I thought it was computer animation. All with signs.

Posted by: lauren smith on May 8, 2003 05:57 PM

Fisher saw this show too -- apparently the DPRK was allowing groups in specifically to allow them to see it. It's called the Arirang Festival Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performance, though Fisher comments:

[It] was ostensibly in honor of departed leader Kim Il-sung's 90th birthday in April, 2002. From the timing and openness to foreigners though, even us evil Americans, a more apt description might be 'Festival to make us feel better cause the World Cup is in the South' or maybe, 'Festival to get us a lot of hard currency'.

Check out the link. There's lots of pictures.

Posted by: colin roald on May 8, 2003 11:07 PM
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