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Category: Propaganda

March 1, 2008

May This Be the Last N.Y. Philharmonic Post

I am really, really tired of blogging about this, but I have two more links that I can’t pass up (thanks to the readers who forwarded them). Both have to do with the N.Y. Philharmonic’s financial backers, and both reflect very different ways of viewing the orchestra’s visit — with and without its moral context. The first story, from long-time Korea hand Don Kirk, is mildly inspiring: During one of the carefully scripted tours of the capital prior to Tuesday’s...
Categories Appeasement/Deprogramming/Korean Society
February 21, 2008

The Morally Retarded Lorin Maazel, Part 2

Lorin Maazel could really use a publicist who understands the concept of “stop digging.” Just when we thought we’d put this flame war behind us, he goes off again, in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page. With time for further reflection and careful editing, here’s how he rephrases his central point: If we are to be effective in bringing succor to the oppressed, many languishing in foreign gulags, the U.S. must claim an authority based on an immaculate ethical record,...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Deprogramming/Human Rights/WTF?
December 5, 2007

South Korean Campaign Speeches Broadcast into North Korea

You’re reading this now, which means that  South Korean politics probably interest you to at least some degree.  But imagine how much they interest North Koreans: A U.S.-funded radio broadcaster said Monday it will transmit speeches and debates of leading South Korean presidential candidates to North Korea beginning this week. The move, coming two weeks before the Dec. 19 election, could present an opportunity for North Koreans to learn about democratic elections, Open Radio for North Korea said in a...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK
November 29, 2007

Clandestine North Korean Journalism: A Step Toward True Openness?

I have never believed that Kim Jong Il would actually permit openness, reform, or transparency to breach the blockade he has painstakingly placed around his people.   Fresh reports of the ghastly public execution of a factory manager for the “crime” of  making international phone calls (and the deadly stampede that followed)  make that point vividly enough.  Despite billions of dollars in South Korean aid — aid that is ultimately paid for by the American taxpayers who finance South Korea’s defense...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK
October 29, 2007

There Is Such a Thing as ‘Good’ Engagement

If you’re reading this, you’re bearing with me despite the light blogging of late.  Thank you.  I make a habit of not talking about my work here, but suffice to say that it carries significant responsibilities that sometimes leave no time and energy for other things.  At times like these, when there is very little time left over, I owe that time to my family.  Thank you again for your understanding,  for continuing to stop by, and for your e-mails. ...
Categories Deprogramming/Six-Party Talks
September 18, 2007

Q&A With Professor Andrei Lankov: On Changing North Korea

[OFK:  This post is a follow-up Q&A to my review of Professor Andrei Lankov’s new book, “.”  Prof. Lankov is a lecturer at the Australian National University, now on leave and teaching at Kookmin University.  You  can see more of  Prof. Lankov’s  books here, and you can find plenty more of his work linked on this blog.  Two of his more notable recent  articles include “The Natural Death of North Korean Stalinism” and “How to Topple Kim Jong Il.”]  ...
Categories Books & Films/Deprogramming
September 9, 2007

North Korea Is Losing Control of Its Border

[Update: Someone “Dugg” this post –thanks — and it’s climbing fast. The digg permlink is here. Page one of “Digg” gets far more attention than just about anything out there, so your diggs are greatly appreciated and are a great way to spread the word. Thank you.] Last week, North Korea announced that several “spies,” possibly including a foreign national, had been caught.  The Daily NK informs us that North Korea’s National Security has claimed credit for the arrests.  The...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK/NK Military
July 22, 2007

What I’m Reading: Andrei Lankov, ‘North of the DMZ’

Back in the 1980s, one of my Russian friends who was then in her early 20s, worked as an interpreter at a joint venture between North Korea and the Soviet Union. She was by no means a prude herself …, but she was somewhat shocked by the amount of sexual banter which her female North Korean colleagues engaged in. For the entire summer when the girls were on their own, they tried to learn as much as possible about the...
Categories Books & Films/Deprogramming/Korean Society
March 7, 2007

Andrei Lankov on Triggering a North Korean Revolution

Update:   Here.  It’s a must-read. You have to see this one (via The Marmot).  In a logical  follow-on to “The Natural Death of North Korean Stalinism,” Professor Andrei Lankov offers practical suggestions for exploiting and  accelerating  a trend he identified previously — the  political decline of the Kim Dynasty.  I’ve previously  called Dr. Lankov arguably the  Western world’s only genuine North Korea expert; he’s one of those rare people  you can listen to for hours in rapt attention without  even...
Categories Deprogramming/Reconstruction
March 6, 2007

Peace Is at Hand!

*    Accountability Is So Last Month:    For those who are thirsty for some rare news of someone holding Kim Jong Il accountable for anything lately, Opinion Journal has more on the end of the U.N. Development Program’s highly questionable North Korea operations, and some unsolicited advice for Chris Hill. *   ‘There’s Nothing to Wait for Here:’   Those words, from the North Korean delegate who passed reporters on his way into “normalization” talks, could be the truest...
Categories Appeasement/Deprogramming/Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK
March 5, 2007

‘Inside North Korea’ Tonight: Don’t Miss This One

A reader reminds me:  National Geographic Explorer is airing a special tonight at 9 p.m., “Inside North Korea.”  This program, done by Lisa Ling while traveling undercover, is not going to be the standard guided tour we’ve come to expect from the networks.   Do yourself a favor and read NGEO’s teaser.  This one looks good. Update:   It is good.  Channel 109 on Comcast. Update 2:   This was definitely one of the best NK docus I’ve seen, if for...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK/Media Criticism
February 24, 2007

Broadcasting Update

Freedom House is giving Young Howard’s Open Radio for North Korea $25,000.  But it’s not really the amount of money that’s interesting; it’s how it will be spent: The money is to support radio programs for families separated by the Korean War. The station said it was the first monetary support from Freedom House for a Korean NGO. ORNK vowed to boost their programming for separated families. Members of such families can send their stories by phone (0505-470-7470) or e-mail...
Categories Deprogramming
February 11, 2007

¿Plata o Plomo?

That title, btw, is a  tip of my  sombrero to my many  Spanish readers today.  As I write, the latest efforts to talk North Korea out of its nukes appear to be making exactly as much progress as they’ve made for the last 15 years.  It’s at least comforting to see our government  moving forward with  other options.  Most of those come in the forms of long-overdue appropriations for  budget authorizations from the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004:...
Categories Counterfeiting/Deprogramming/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Refugees
February 8, 2007

Watching Porn in Pyongyang

Question:  How much can  you get for a smuggled DVD of a South Korean soap opera in Pyongyang these days? Answer:  Ten years in Camp 15. Still, in the latest of a flurry of signs that the Thought Police aren’t what they used to be, the DVD’s are wildly popular anyway (hat tip to Ampontan). “This year, North Korean authorities waged what they call ‘psychological warfare’ against ‘exotic lifestyles’ by cracking down on South Korean pop culture,” a senior government...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK/Korean Society
January 26, 2007

Kim Jong Il, Defender of Free Speech

North Korea said on Friday the South Korean government was violating the public’s basic right to information by blocking access to Web sites sympathetic to the North. South Korea has denied access to more than 30 Web sites that it has designated “pro-North Korea” since 2004, including the North’s official KCNA news agency’s Web service and sites operated outside. “This is a fascist action against democracy and human rights as it infringes upon the South Koreans’ freedom of speech and...
Categories Censorship/Deprogramming
January 17, 2007

NGO: No New Year’s Rations in N. Korea This Year, Except in Pyongyang

More evidence that things are worse this year than they were last year.  North Korea has failed to deliver on its promise to distribute food rations across the communist country on the occasion of the New Year, a civic aid group said Wednesday. “Except for Pyongyang, no special New Year food rations were issued,” Good Friends, a Seoul-based civic relief organization, said in its latest monthly newsletter. The group said that North Korean authorities had planned to provide food rations...
Categories Deprogramming/Famine & Food Aid
January 7, 2007

You Can’t Eat Plutonium

The Daily NK previously reported that Pyongyang’s patrician class had swallowed the whole “barrel of a gun” spin after North Korea’s nuclear test.  It didn’t surprise me to hear that.  I’d even predicted it. I’m equally unsurprised that North Korea’s proles, and some of its urban youth, are less impressed and seem completely disillusioned with the course of things. Young adults in Pyongyang commonly call Kim Jong Il as “that guy,” whereas in the province of Hamkyung, Kim Jong Il...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK/Resistance