As part of Chatham House’s Asia Programme there will be a talk given by Jasper Becker on the topic of The Challenge of North Korea to Regional and Global Stability next Thursday afternoon, August 17th. Biographical information provided by Chatham House follows: Jasper Becker is one of the UK’s most respected writers and journalists on … [Read More]
Category: DPRK (page 22)
DPRK propaganda films
As promised yesterday. Thanks to Tom Coyner for circulating this link. Enjoy. Left: another of those excellent Russian holiday snaps from yesterday’s post. Update 8 Sept 2019: The above link no longer works, as the website no longer exists. I have checked the page in the web archive for the URLs of the underlying YouTube … [Read More]
Holiday snaps from the DPRK
Tom Coyner has delivered another gem of an email to his readership: a link to a great collection of new photographs of North Korea, apparently taken by a young Russian tourist couple very recently. An example is shown left. Visit http://www.fishmonger.ru/06-07-27/index.htm for the full set. Aidan Foster-Carter provides additional commentary. Unfortunately the description of the … [Read More]
Kim Jong-il’s book on cinema
Filmbrain has spotted – and bought and, even more nobly, read – a translation of Kim Jong-il’s On the Art of Cinema. A snip at £22.50 from Amazon. I’ll add it to my wishlist, but I’m afraid it’s not top of the list! Thanks to atom over at koreanfilm.org for spotting this. Links: Buy at … [Read More]
Dear Leader’s Heir Apparent fills Independent News Void
The UK’s Independent is getting increasingly soft-focus. It’s more like a Sunday supplement than a newspaper. Yesterday’s page 1 and 2 (you don’t get much to a page in the new tabloid format, once you’ve sold all the advertising space) contained the shock horror news that 4x4s are bad and their drivers are stupid. On … [Read More]
Nobble your vicar
The organisation of the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea has been impressive. The website has been up for ages, allowing ample time for word-of-mouth. And then a week or so ago there was a bulk mailing. I happened to be around at the vicarage the other day for a meeting of the church … [Read More]
Two Koreas’ Top Brass Resort to Racist Mudslinging
A continuation of the ongoing theme on racial purity spurred by the visit of Korean-American Dan Hines to Korea. The more extreme position taken by the representative from the North chimes in well with this harrowing story in Time. The full story is in the Chosun Ilbo here. [Read More]
A day in the life of a Kim Jong-il impersonator
This article on the Yonhap website is worth a look describing the professional rivalry between two Kim Jong-il lookalikes Kim Young-sik and Bae Eun-sik. Of the two, Kim Young-sik appears to be the better known, at least outside of Korea. He has been featured in an Australian TV news item and also in an article … [Read More]
Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang
(Aidan FC’s website, 1988) Amid the pile of available reading material on the DPRK, is there room for an unpublished memoir, getting on for 20 years old, recording the experiences of a lowly “raiser” — someone who converts Konglish into English — in late 1980s Pyongyang? Definitely yes. Though obviously not state of the art, … [Read More]
DPRK’s need for hard currency
Sorry, I’m a bit behind with some of the news stories. The BBC ran an interesting one a couple of days ago on the US$ supernotes and other ways of generating hard currency. The theme is picked up on in today’s DPRK embassy e-bulletin. [Read More]
Elevator music leads to defection
To many it’s the sort of music one would endure all sorts of hardship to get away from — but to a talented North Korean pianist it was a revelation which led him to defect to the South. Yes, it’s the easy-listening grooves of Richard Clayderman which inspired the conversion. It says something about the … [Read More]
More on Lone Star / KEB and the US Kaesong visit
I’m guessing that Douglas Anderson from the US House of Representatives has now reported back to base following his visit to Kaesong. Jay Lefkowitz, the US envoy for NK human rights has condemned the low wages and poor conditions there, to the understandable irritation of the South. I’m also guessing that the messages taken back … [Read More]
North-themed update
The Xinhua newsagency reports the cordial meeting between Kim Jong-Il’s brother-in-law Jang Song Taek and a member of the Chinese politbureau, as the DPRK’s tour of Chinese economic zones draws to a close. Meanwhile, Yoduk story, the musical based in a North Korean concentration camp, is a sell-out success. The BBC is now featuring the … [Read More]
Life in the concentration camp – in a musical
I was a bit slow in spotting this, but for politically controversial stage shows, Yoduk Story must take some beating – a musical about human rights abuses in one of North Korea’s concentration camps, written, directed and acted by defectors. See article in the Chosun Ilbo. Other Links: Musical brings Korean horrors home, Charles Scanlon, … [Read More]
Kang Chol-hwan: Aquariums of Pyongyang
(Basic Books 2001) A harrowing autobiographical account of a young boy’s experience in a North Korean concentration camp. Essential reading. Links: Buy Aquariums of Pyongyang at Amazon [Read More]