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Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.

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Andrei Lankov

Photography in N. Korea

By Andrei Lankov Nowadays, it is easy to create and reproduce digital images. Almost all of us have a mobile phone with a camera in our pocket. These digital cameras deliver a level of quality that a few decades ago was beyond the reach of anybody but a handful of professionals.This proliferation of photography makes it easy to forget that until recently a photograph used to be something that cost a great deal and took a long time to produce. Until the arrival of cheap film cameras in the 1950s, most people did not even bother to learn their way around a camera. Instead, they would go to professional studios when they needed pictures taken.As one might expect, the era of studio-based photography, which ended in the West in the 1950s, lasted until the early 1990s in North Korea. Indeed, in the Kim Il-sung era, a camera was an expensive status symbol well beyond the reach of the majority. At that time, most North Korean photographers used Soviet-made cameras (by the way, one of the few mass consumption goods my homeland was good at making), while an elite cadre of professional sna

Oct 18, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Founding of Workers' Party

By Andrei LankovOn Oct. 10, North Korea is going to hold a major celebration. All North Korean citizens have been issued bonuses equaling their monthly salary, and massive festivities are expected.If you ask the average North Korean what happened on Oct. 10 to warrant such celebrations, they are likely to reply with little hesitation: “On that day, Oct. 10, 1945, the Great Leader Kim Il-sung established the North Korean Communist Party.” Perhaps, 99.9 percent of North Koreans believe this statement. However, not a single word of it is true ― with the possible exception of the verb “to establish” and some pronouns.Interestingly, one does not need any access to classified archival material to find out the truth. All relevant documents were published decades ago, in North Korea, quite officially. However, then the political situation changed, so the history was re-written completely, to serve new political demands. The North Korean elite, nevertheless, has no need to worry that inconvenient facts will surface: to need to rewrite the past is the reason why North K

Oct 4, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Birth of a missile power

By Andrei LankovSo, the North Korean government made a public statement, claiming it has restarted its nuclear facilities, will soon launch another prototype long-range missile (or peaceful satellite, as they prefer to describe it) and perhaps will conduct a nuclear test.This statement created some uproar in the world media, even though it contains nothing new. The same declarations come from Pyongyang every year or two, usually followed by nuclear tests and missile launches. This bellicose rhetoric is an established, if picturesque, part of North Korean diplomacy, and, like any diplomatic rhetoric, it should never be taken at face value. Nonetheless, the statement likely means that North Korea is preparing to launch another missile. Thus, it might be a good time now to refresh our memories about North Korea’s missile program.The North Koreans always badly wanted missiles, but it took a long time before they got any. In the 1960s, North Korea bought some short-range missiles from Russia, but soon it was discovered that neither the Russians nor the Chinese were willing to sell t

Sep 20, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Seoul was quiet again - with reasons

By Andrei Lankov Nowadays, it is easy to create and reproduce digital images. Almost all of us have a mobile phone with a camera in our pocket. These digital cameras deliver a level of quality that a few decades ago was beyond the reach of anybody but a handful of professionals.This proliferation of photography makes it easy to forget that until recently a photograph used to be something that cost a great deal and took a long time to produce. Until the arrival of cheap film cameras in the 1950s, most people did not even bother to learn their way around a camera. Instead, they would go to professional studios when they needed a picture taken.As one might expect, the era of studio-based photography, which ended in the West in the 1950s, lasted until the early 1990s in North Korea. Indeed, in the Kim Il-sung era, a camera was an expensive status symbol well beyond the reach of the majority. At that time, most North Korean photographers used Soviet-made cameras (by the way, one of the few mass consumption goods my homeland was very good at making), while an elite cadre of profession

Sep 6, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

World's most reclusive leader

By Andrei LankovSo, it happened again: Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea, failed to show and greet a visiting foreign dignitary.This time, the dignitary was Lee Hee-ho, widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. She visited North Korea in early August, following an official invitation from Kim. Given the role that her husband played in starting the Sunshine Policy some 15 years ago, one would expect that she would be granted an audience by the North Korean leader. However, this did not happen.This clearly forms part of a pattern. Just a few months ago, in early May this year, it was widely expected that Kim would visit Moscow, to attend massive celebrations for the Allied victory in World War II. North Korean diplomats hinted that he would attend until the last moment, but he did not show, and North Korea was represented in Moscow by Kim Yong-nam, the chairman of North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, clearly a stand-in.So far, in the three and half years of Kim’s rule, North Korea has been visited by only one head of state, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, p

Aug 23, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

The looming missile launch

By Andrei LankovRecent reports seemingly confirm that the North Korean government has entered the final stages of preparation for a missile launch. The launch site in Tongchang-ri, near the Yellow Sea, has recently been expanded and upgraded. In late July North Korean engineers also built a protective roof over the launch pads. The most likely purpose of this roof is to cover the final preparations from the preying cameras of foreign satellites.This is something that has been widely expected. Rumours about an imminent missile launch or, perhaps, a nuclear test have been doing the rounds for some time. The likely time is early October, that is, around the time that North Korea will officially celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the ruling Korean Workers Party.What is the likely reaction of the outside world? As usual, expect plenty of verbal condemnation and some other semi-symbolic actions with little in the way of actual impact. However, in some regards, this launch might have more serious consequences than similar events in previous years.There is little doubt th

Aug 9, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

How to outsmart old regulations

By Andrei LankovRecently, one of my North Korean friends told me that she had sent another money transfer to her native town deep in the North Korean countryside. This did not surprise me at all. This woman, in her mid-30s, has spent the last 10 years supporting her family which includes a son in his early teens back in North Korea. She is a North Korean refugee, of course, and she wires money to her hometown twice a year.One can ask, though, how it is possible to send money from South Korea to the North: First, it is illegal according to the laws of both Korean states. Second, North Korea is a country without a banking system worth speaking of, and what little exists is not permitted to receive remittances from South Korea.However, over the last decade or so, it has become quite simple to send money from South Korea to the North. Banks have almost nothing to do with this, since such money transfers are handled by networks of brokers. While there is no legal paperwork, and trust is basically everything, these networks are quick and remarkably reliable, though very expensive. Indeed,

Jul 26, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

N. Korean trade: Business as usual?

By Andrei LankovEvery May or June, South Korean research centres publish North Korean trade statistics. Surprising though it sounds, this is what the South Koreans do. The North Koreans made trade statistics (and most other statistics) classified back in the early 1960s and have only once ― in 1984 ― released such figures. However, trade figures are relatively easy to reconstruct. It takes two to tango, all international trade requires two countries. Since all of North Korea’s major trade partners reliably report their trade stats, a reconstruction is not too difficult.The 2014 round of statistics tells a familiar story. Surprisingly indeed, many political issues that were expected to have an impact on North Korean trade have seemingly failed to do so. Neither North Korea’s increasingly tense relations with China, nor growing cordiality with Russia have had much of an impact on trade patterns.When dealing with foreign trade data as published in South Korea one has to keep in mind an important and potentially hazardous feature of this data: it does not normally i

Jul 12, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Crying wolf

By Andrei LankovThe last couple of weeks were marked by another outburst of alarmist reporting on North Korea. This time the topic is the drought which has hit the country and, as some people speculate, will produce grave consequences, perhaps even famine.Stories about the unusually dry weather have been around since May, and visitors to the North Korean countryside paint a rather grim picture of the situation there. However, talk began in earnest when the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the most official of all official North Korean media, confirmed reports on June 16. The KCNA report sounds even more alarmist than similar reports in the Western media: the ongoing drought is described as "he worst in 100 years”.So, many observers have begun to talk as if a major famine is about to hit North Korea again, and we will face a repetition of events from the 1990s when more than half million North Koreans starved to death.However, there is good reason to remain somewhat skeptical about these reports. This year’s drought seems to be serious indeed, but it is far too early to

Jun 28, 2015By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

On jobs good and bad

By  Andrei LankovOn jobs good and badBy Andrei Lankov When you talk to North Koreans, you often hear the person you are talking to become deferential when talking about sales clerks or drivers. Such jobs are referred to in terms similar to the way the average Westerner would probably describe a doctor or lawyer. On the other hand, in North Korea medical doctors are considered to be run-of-the-mill white-collar occupations that do not carry any prestige and do not have good salaries. Indeed, the hierarchy of jobs is very different in North Korea from that of the West (and South Korea).The idealist in me does not like to admit this sad fact, but we respect people who are well paid and respect less those who do not. In this regard, North Korea is no different to the West. Party officials and police personnel occupy the top of the North Korean social pyramid. When you talk to parents, you often hear about their wish that their daughter marry a young clerk in the local party office or, if she is particularly lucky, to a secret police operative. These are dream jobs for

Jun 14, 2015By Andrei Lankov
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