David Tizzard is a professor at Seoul Women’s University, holds a PhD in Korean Studies, and hosts the Korea Deconstructed podcast. He has lived and worked in Seoul for more than two decades. Reach him at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
Schrodinger's Kim Jong-un
By David Tizzard
By David A. Tizzard
Chairman Kim Jong-un is alive. Chairman Kim Jong-un is dead. He is both, and he is neither. In fact apart from a very select few of the world's 7.8 billion people, no one truly knows.
Certainly not this Englishman.
I specialize in British policy vis-a-vis the DPRK, with a particular focus on the years 1991 to 2000. So you'll understand if this latest event is a bit out of my wheelhouse.
Yet despite that no one really knowing, the world's media and the internet have been ablaze with speculation regarding the DPRK's leader. There have been claims he has had heart surgery, brain surgery, he's on a train, he's in Wonsan, he's merely in hiding, and so on. The hashtag confirming his death has over 300,000 retweets.
Where in the world is Kim Jong-un? And why the fascination when he is but one man and elsewhere millions of our loved ones are living through harder times than any would have predicted.
Essentially, because he is the world's youngest head of state to possess a nuclear arsenal. Moreover, many 'experts' have been predicting the fall of the state since its formation in 1948.
And it is the nuclear issue that is the reason for all the speculation. For leaders live and die all the time, just like us normal citizens. But were there to be a power vacuum in North Korea, it would spark a power struggle both internally and externally.
While many perceive of the North as a monolith, all existing under the supreme totalitarian control of an omniscient leader, the reality is seemingly far from that Benthamite depiction: There are factions, there are those with contrasting views of engagement, those who truly hate the western world, those seek power, and those who merely seek the luxuries and elegances to which they have become accustomed in Pyongyang.
Externally, China, South Korea, the United States, Russia, and Japan ― as well, perhaps, as a few of the world's largest companies ― would all be keen to be involved in whatever happens next. Only South Korea would seemingly have a legal ground to do so as it claims jurisdiction over the territory.
One of the more interesting tidbits of information is that the capital of North Korea until 1972 was….Seoul.
All the states will be carrying out briefings, placing contingency plans, discussing information regarding possible military maneuverers, psychological observations of those possibly next in-line, and ― if you'll pardon my French ― crapping their pants a little bit.
But I would like to share one recent development that hasn't had much coverage elsewhere.
We know that North Korea watches western media reports. And we know that they occasionally react to them through their state-run news and television operations.
Recently, however, they have begun changing how they are communicating. They've gone online and are using social media. Myers' three-track framework has a new addition.
What's Buzzfeed in Chosun-mal?
Earlier this week, reports came out that there had been “panic buying” in some of Pyongyang's popular grocery shops and malls. Whether this was linked to the Covid-19 pandemic or the leader's health was not clear. The story was, to my knowledge, first reported by Chad O'Carroll in NK News who cited “multiple informed sources”.
It was later picked up by Bloomberg, the South China Morning Post, and many more.
But the response was most interesting: Posted by the twitter account “@coldnoodlefan”, who seemingly has ties to the country's state media, it was a video of a street reporter in Pyongyang named Un A who was “responding to claims in the western media” regarding the shortages.
She did so in English and in an effort to combat “fake news”.
The video shows well-dressed men and women, the elites of Pyongyang, shopping in fully-stocked supermarkets, wearing masks, and commenting on the prices of the products. For the most part, perhaps predictably, they said that products had in fact been getting cheaper, particularly the Taedonggang brand goods.
The interviewees are all young women, wearing make-up, and truth be told, appearing as if they would look just as at home in a Chongdam-dong brunch cafe. More evidence that, alongside the crafted appearances of Kim Yo-jong and Ri Sol-ju, the country is using social media to try and appeal to the western world and dispel the narrative and notions that it is a gerontocratic patriarchy.
It's slick, well-edited, has a chill soundtrack, and shows the affluence in which some in North Korea live. Importantly, it shows that the people there have lives, dreams, children, and shopping lists just like you and I.
The North Korean state reads western reports. It keeps an eye on the global narrative and it responds when it feels necessary.
So I wonder what the next video will be like?
More of the elites flexing in their designer goods while shopping? Wailings of millions as they mourn a loss?
Or footage of Chairman Kim Jong-un atop a white horse majestically riding up to Baekdu Mountain to reinforce his family's control over the nation?
To tell you the truth, none of them would surprise me.
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University and lectures in politics and history and Hanyang University. He presents economic and cultural issues on "Business Now" on TBS eFM (101.3FM) live every Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.