I have just been watching the VICE Guide to North Korea on VBS.tv. I am not easily impressed with footage filmed in North Korea because, frankly, I have seen a lot of it. Still, every now and then you catch something fairly obscure which makes the time spent watching it worthwhile.
The guys who filmed the video had the same guide as me, Mr. Lee, which means they were traveling under the auspices of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. They have also gotten other journalists in as well (See here). Note to all the journalists out there.
Another thing I noticed was that the DPRK has made investments in upgrading their tourism facilities…even on the USS Pueblo.
In 2004, the Pueblo propaganda movie was shown on a traditional cathode television. In 2007 it seems they have upgraded to a flat screen. The ‘paean‘ of television technology.
Posted in Television, Tourism | Comments Off on Pueblo television upgrade
In the latest issue (February 3rd) of the DPRK Cabinet bulletin, “Democratic Chosun”, it was reported that the first extended cabinet meeting of the year opened in the beginning of February, with Premier Kim Young-il presiding. The bulletin stated that the issue of accomplishing this year’s economic plans was discussed.
At the meeting, Vice Premier Kwak Bum-ki stressed that accomplishing this year’s economic goals was “essential for opening the doors to a breakthrough for building an economically strong nation,” and that it was the “fundamental task laid out before the Cabinet.” He went on to reveal the tasks and directives needed to revitalize all realms of socialist construction, which he stated was necessary to create a powerful and prosperous nation by 2012, the centennial anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Il Sung.
In particular, he called for the production of the “lifeline of socialist construction”, and specifically, electricity, coal, metal, and railways, which he referred to as the “four lines for the advance of the people’s economy.”
Accordingly, the goal of carrying out overwhelming repairs to power generation facilities, and at the same time constructing new power plants in order to increase electrical production capabilities by several hundred thousand kilowatts, was proposed.
The meeting also stressed the need for concentrating efforts on geological exploration and exploitation industries in order to reasonably development and use natural resources, for a change in production of goods necessary for daily life, and for a resolution to the people’s ‘eating problem’ alluded to in the recent New Year’s Joint Editorial.
The bulletin also reported that there was discussion on creating a new five-year plan for the development of science and technology, going as far as to say, ”the role of science and technology in the building of an economically powerful nation is decidedly large, and in order to answer the very real calls for development, [the issue of] strengthening international economic projects” was brought up.
Premier Kim Young-il, Vice-Premier Kwak Bum-ki, Chairman Kim Kwang-rin, of the Committee on National Planning, Park Nam-jil, of the Power Supply Industry Bureau, and Kim Yong-sam, from the Railways Bureau, were among cabinet ministers present.
This week that Washington Post (hat tip Dr. Petrov)published an article which took a unique position on the NY Phil’s performance. Rather than comment on whether the event was diplomatically significant, or whether it legitimized a regime with a poor human rights record, the columnist denounced it for having a “tinge of benevolent didacticism”…before pointing out that North Korea has no shortage of classically-trained, quality orchestra conductors. In fact, for years they have been sending students to Vienna:
Asia is a hotbed of Western classical music. This passion has evidently not bypassed North Korea. Much of the West harbors images of North Koreans as either wealthy soldiers or starving peasants. But in Vienna, Austria, there is another image of them: as conducting students. The elite conducting class at the University of Music and Performing Arts there has trained no fewer than 17 North Korean students in the past decade.
According to Mark Stringer, the conductor who leads the class, the North Korean government decides, every few years, that it is time to train a new crop of elite young conductors. In the early 2000s — a few years before Stringer took over in 2005 — the government’s choice fell on this Vienna school. There were considerable bureaucratic hurdles to overcome; North Korean representatives insisted on sitting in on auditions, and had a hard time understanding why not all of their handpicked candidates were accepted by the school. But they were also paying attention.
“The next batch,” Stringer said, “knew what to expect. They were so prepared they could nail every single bit of our ferociously difficult entrance exam.”
The students also do not fulfill anyone’s expectations of politically guarded wards of the state. “They have a completely normal experience,” Stringer says. “Once they’re in the walls of the school, politics disappear. There is no breathing down our necks from the North Korean officials.” He describes the students as generally more open, easygoing and funny than their South Korean counterparts.
“Were they to be allowed to stay in the West,” he says, “a number of the ones I’ve seen would have a serious chance of a prominent international career. It’s phenomenal what they come to Vienna knowing how to do.”
UPDATE email from a reader:
I also visited that performance of the joint North-South Korean student’s orchestra at Vienna Music Universtity (and took a video of this performance).
Contrary to the Washington Post article the ambassadors were not attending the performance, but other staff of the respective embassies [were]. I don’t know, if they drank beer together, but anyhow, when arriving at the hall before performance the consuls (not ambassadors) greeted themselves nicely.
Very interesting the seating arrangement of the South and North Korean spectators in this student concert. The men (Korean, North an[d] south) in rows 2-4, the women in rows 5-6 and the students behind. (very Confucian …) It was amazing to see how many North Koreans must be living here in Vienna.
In Vienna, there are not only North Korean conductor students, but also piano, violin, biology, architecture or English students. The same in Germany, Italy and maybe France and other countries.
The full article can be read here:
The N.Y. Philharmonic in North Korea: Symbology and the Music Washington Post
Anne Midgette
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; Page C04
UPDATE 2 (2013-6-24): A documentary was made of the NY Phil’s visit to Pyongyang. You can watch both parts here:
Part I:
Part II:
UDATE 1 (2008-11-17): Suki Kim wrote about the experience in Harpers. Download the PDF here: harpers.pdf
ORIGINAL POST (2008-2-27): Its difficult to say anything about the NY Phil’s performance that has not already been reported on by numerous other forums, but I think I managed to put together enough interesting material to meet the high standards of North Korean Economy Watch readers:
Pyongyang and the Star Spangled Banner
This site claimed that the philharmonic’s performance would likely be the first time that the US national anthem was broadcast on North Korea’s airwaves. The Joong Ang Daily backs this claim up with a caveat:
The Unification Ministry of South Korea said the U.S. national anthem was played in Pyongyang in 2005 at an international boxing match. It is, however, the first time the Star Spangled Banner has been broadcast live across North Korea. (Joong Ang Daily)
The first public performance of the Star Spangled Banner in Pyongyang was in honor of US female boxer Yvonne Caples (official biography here). Here is how it was reported in KCNA:
DPRK Female Pro Boxer Choe Un Sun Wins World Championship
Pyongyang, June 28, 2005 (KCNA) — Female pro boxer Choe Un Sun of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea captured the championship title of the WBCF in the women’s light flyweight category (48.98 kg). Choe Un Sun settled the bout by a unanimous decision over Yvonne Caples of the United States.
The champion belt, trophy and certificate were awarded to Choe.
The match was held at the Ryugyong Jong Ju Yong Gymnasium in Pyongyang Tuesday.
In the interest of fair reporting, here is Ms. Caples’ side of the story:
…Yvonne traveled to Pyongyang, North Korea to be a part of the historic first professional boxing matches in North Korea to fight for the WBCF Jr. Flyweight World Title against North Korean Eun Soon Choi. During Yvonne’s bout the American National Anthem was played for the first time in North Korea. Yvonne knew that in order to get a decision she would probably have to get a knock out. Eun Soon Choi proved to be very strong and skillful. Fighting in front of 13,000 cheering North Koreans, Yvonne fought what she felt was the best fight of her career. Despite the intimidating crowd Yvonne felt relaxed and confident throughout the fight. “I fought the fight of my life and came on very strong in the last five rounds. Even though I felt I won the fight, I knew I wouldn’t get the decision. It is no joke fighting in an arena with 13,000 people cheering against you. I was so proud of myself for keeping my composure and fighting so hard in this fight. I do have to take my hat off to the North Korean fighters. I expected them to be strong and well-conditioned, but they were also very skillful fighters. I don’t think anyone would be able to go over there and completely dominate them or knock them out.”
Ms. Caples aside, the editor of this site sang the US national anthem on a bus full of tourists and north Korean guides traveling to Wonsan in August 2005. For the record, this counts as the second live, “public” performance of the Star Spangled Banner. The NY Philharmonic is only now taking the bronze.
Jazz also made its debut. According to Defector Kim Chol-woong:
[“An American in Paris”] is a masterpiece, a mixture of classical and jazz. I am amazed that they will play jazz, because the genre is strictly forbidden in North Korea.
[W]hat musicians are allowed to perform is strictly political. Jazz is forbidden because it is American music. Jazz is considered lewd and immoral. (Joong Ang Daily)
How many people heard the performance?
The theater holds 1500. According to the WSJ, there were a minimum of 150 foreigners likely in the audience (they flew in with the orchestra). Who knows if any of the small business, NGO, and diplomatic community residing in Pyongyang were able to attend. There was also a dress rehearsal for 1200 earlier in the day.
The Daily NK reports (Via the Japanese Mainichi) the the performance was not boradcast on radio, only on television. This means that relatively few people saw it since the penetration of radios is far more significant than television in the DPRK.
Addendum: Who attended? In the comment section below, “Gag Halfrunt” (clever handle) links to a list of VIP attnedees in KCNA.
Anna Fifield (whom I briefly met in Pyongyang in 2005) reports today in the Financial Times that the DPRK has invited Eric Clapton to make an appearance in Pyongyang:
The New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang on Tuesday night. The North Korean State Symphony Orchestra plans to perform in London this summer.
Pyongyang has invited Mr Clapton, whose hits include “Cocaine” and “Tears in Heaven”, as a reciprocal visit for the North Korean orchestra tour, the Financial Times has learnt.
“These cultural exchanges are a way of promoting understanding between countries,” a North Korean official told the FT. “We want our music to be understood by the western world and we want our people to understand western music.” (Financial Times)
Of course, we have known since 2006 that Mr. Clapton has at least one important fan in the DPRK:
While the rest of the world was anxiously following news about North Korea’s recent missile tests, Kim Jong-il’s second son and possible heir apparent, Kim Jong-chul, had his mind focused on entirely different matters. He was among the fans who followed British rock and blues guitarist Eric Clapton on his German tour, which took him to Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Berlin.
Jong-chul, 25, is said to be a diehard Clapton fan, and may have acquired a taste for Western popular music when, in the mid-1990s, he studied at a private international boarding school in Bern, Switzerland. (Asia Times)
The full articles can be found below:
N Korea strikes chord with Clapton invite Financial Times
Anna Fifield
2/25/2008
The South Korean NGO ‘Good Friends’ has reported that government stores in North Korea are mourning the drop in sales of electrical appliance, which appear to be out of favor due to electrical shortages around the country. Good Friends, an organization focused on supplying aid to North Korea, printed in its latest newsletter, “From November of last year to this February electricity has not been available on a regular basis in Chungjin City. At one foreign goods store in the Pohang District, electrical appliances have been barely selling…not only have the store’s sellers have been unable to meet monthly sales targets for several months, sales in February are no different.”
In addition, the newsletter describes the seriousness of the North’s energy shortage, pointing out that “as it becomes more and more difficult for residents to see electricity, they are seeking out Chinese-made 12V batteries, car batteries, candles, and other alternatives.” According to the article, most well-off residents are using car batteries, while average laborers carry flashlights or small battery chargers to work, using electricity slated for industrial use to charge personal items. ”Authorities or people with relatively good jobs usually have around five rechargers in their offices, while some may have more than ten…people with no money or access to industrial-use electricity are buying candles for light.”
The article concluded with, “Electricity has not flown into Soonchun City since October of last year, and five hours of current provided for the people last January 1st, New Year’s Day, was practically the only [electricity]…when returning home after work in the evenings, there is no electricity and nothing to eat, making life difficult.” Along with this, the newsletter reported, “North Korean authorities will no longer permit private dummy corporations…in serious cases, public executions are carried out.”
How pervasive is the flow of outside information in North Korea? Typically stories in the media answer this question as though geography is the determinate variable: Cities near the Chinese border are the most influenced by heterodox ideas (since cell phones, clear television signals, and smuggling have been commonplace for years), and cities in the south (along the DMZ) are the most isolated (aside from Kaesong). North Korea’s internal travel restrictions prevent foreign ideas from spreading. This view was recently repeated by Andrei Lankov.
“The Kaesong exception” is thought to be correlated to the growth of the the Kaesong Industrial Zone. The theory goes that the thousands of North Koreans who are employed in Kaesong (who work in South Korean facilities for South Korean managers) pick up bits of outside information at the margin and share it with their friends and family back home. It is not an unreasonable theory.
A new story in the Daily NK, however, presents evidence which points to ideological contamination on a nationwide scale (irrespective of geography). The story claims that the city of Haeju is not only thoroughly exposed to South Korean radio and television – it is a production hub of a pirate video market:
“We can receive the TV broadcast of KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) fine in Haeju. Sometimes, we can watch MBC (Moonhwa Broadcasting Corporation) as well. I watched Dae Jo Yong (a popular TV drama from KBS) on TV. However, I wanted to watch it again, so I bought a CD and watched it several more time.” He said, “We can get copies of South Korean TV programs from China. However, a great number of copies are also produced in Haeju.”
In a nod to communist efficiency, the subject interviewed in the Daily NK story even claims that in Haeju it is easier to pick up South Korean television signals than those from North Korea!
With a “manufacturing” facility in Haeju, black market DVDs or VCDs can be copied and distributed throughout the south east even if security is tighter along the Chinese border. Additionally, these DVDs/VCDs would be cheaper and more widely distributed because they are produced locally (as opposed to using Chinese labor/capital) and will require fewer middlemen to get them across the border and into the hands of consumers. If this has been going on for some time, then it is safe to assume that most urban centers from Haeju to Pyongyang have regular access to South Korean media!
Of course a decline in acceptance of the state ideology means the government must rely on external controls (rather than an individual’s self-control) to maintain the system. The good news is that external controls can be avoided through technolgy, corruption, or both:
“In the border areas with China and South Korea such as Hwanghae and Kangwon Province, the North Korean authorities try to prevent people from watching S. Korean TV by soldering and pre-tuning TV sets to Chonsun (North Korea) Central TV. Lately, the authorities also attempt to restrict the usage of remote control by covering the sensor with silver paper.
However, North Korean people circumvent the regulation. Instead of giving away their remote control to the authorities, they purchase an extra and watch the TV as they please after removing the silver paper. After all, the authorities’ efforts to control TV channels turn out to be futile for those who have remote control TV sets.
The full article can be found here: North Korean People Copy South Korean TV Drama for Trade Daily NK
Lee Sung Jin
2/22/2008
Update: Today the New York Times reports that the North Korean government has agreed to broadcast the New York Philharmonic’s Pyongyang concert live on state television. Why is this interesting? First of all, this means that the US national anthem, and many other beautiful songs, will be played over North Korea’s airwaves–probably for the first time. Secondly, communist countries are typically very hesitant to broadcast anything live.
The concert will take place in Pyongyang’s East Theater, located in the Munsu district on the east side of the city.
One thing is for sure, Politics aside, the performance will certainly be more interesting than the concert South Korea’s Shinhwa and Baby V.O.X. put on in Pyongyang!
Original Post: 2/7/2008
Today the New York Times(link requires free registration) ran a story on who will be broadcasting the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang…
The New York Philharmonic’s concert in North Korea on Feb. 26 will be broadcast that evening on [New York’s local PBS station] WNET, Channel 13, and distributed two days later on PBS, broadcast officials said Wednesday.
In an unusual arrangement, ABC News will cooperate with WNET, New York’s public television station, to produce the broadcast.
Because of the time difference, the concert will actually take place before dawn New York time on Feb. 26. A live broadcast will be made available for any takers by EuroArts Music International, which produces and distributes classical music programming and has the rights to the broadcast outside South Korea.
The most interesting part of the story, however:
One place where the broadcast is still uncertain is North Korea itself. Government officials there have not said whether the concert will be shown on local television, according to Eric Latzky, the Philharmonic’s spokesman.
Given North Korea’s deep isolation and the government’s tight control over its citizens, the broadcast issue is of crucial interest. Orchestra officials said they had pressed hard to have the concert shown on North Korean television, to ensure that it would be heard by more than just a small audience of dignitaries. The broadcast of any event from North Korea is rare.
You can read the stories here:
Concert in North Korea to Be Broadcast Live New York Times
Daniel Watkin
2/19/2008
PBS Will Broadcast Concert From North Korea New York Times
Daniel Wakin
2/7/2008
During the late 1990s, North Korea suffered a terrible economic collapse which resulted in famine and massive social dislocation. During this time, most ministries and state-owned companies were cash-strapped and unable to maintain their operations. Out of desperation they turned to private investment for much needed revenues by outsourcing many basic services. (Individuals who were capable of taking up such opportunities were probably small in number at the time, but apparently now compose a healthy sub-section of the population.)
Outsourcing has benefited both the government and private entrepreneurs. Outsourcing allows state-owned companies to receive capital financing from private individuals as well as a share of joint-venture revenues (tax revenues). Private entrepreneurs need a legal business environment where they know they will not be subject to ex-post expropriation of profits. Leasing the name of a government body gives them some of this legal cover. This system is no doubt tolerated because it allows the government create space for entrepreneurship (and tax revenue) within the existing state structure while still maintaining de jure control of the means of production.
According to the story in the Daily NK, the regulations for establishing a legitimate passenger bus company under this system (or “coach” company for readers in Her Majesty’s Commonwealth) are fairly strict. Once an individual acquires a bus (appx US$6,000-10,000), he has to register it with the government body for whom he is working. Revenues are then split 70/30 (the government taking 30%) for three years, after which the individual is required to “donate” the privately acquired bus to the state-owned enterprise. This policy literally gives North Korean entrepreneurs just three years to recoup their investments!
The response of the North Korean business community was predictable: investors sell the buses before the three years are up or they forge registration papers. This is not hard to do in the DPRK. In fact if you have just one other associate who owns a bus in similar condition, all you need to do is trade with him every three years and re-register the new vehicle.
Word of this game has finally reached the top and they have responded by increasing their share to 70% of passenger bus revenues–leaving just 30% for the purchaser of the vehicle. It is unclear from the story if investors are still required to “donate” their busses after three years, but realizing that the confiscation of buses was not enforceable, the North Korean government probably just opted for a larger share of the revenue over time.
The good news is that it is not likely that many people pay 70% of revenues either. After-all, someone has to collect these taxes and he has needs too. Sounds like some kind of arrangement could be reached…
You can read the full story here:
North Korea Regulates Operation of “Service Car” Daily NK
2/18/2008
During the late 1990s, North Korea suffered a terrible economic collapse which resulted in famine and massive social dislocation. During this time, most ministries and state-owned companies were cash-strapped and unable to maintain their operations. Out of desperation they turned to private investment for much needed revenues by outsourcing many basic services. (Individuals who were capable of taking up such opportunities were probably small in number at the time, but apparently now compose a healthy sub-section of the population.)
