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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

A sad comedy of errors

By Andrei LankovAfter a few months of relative tranquillity and malign neglect, North Korea has once again found itself in the international spotlight. As usual, the reasons are not pleasant: hackers, believed to be on the payroll of the North Korean government, broke into the poorly protected computer system at Sony Pictures and obtained a great deal of damaging material.The entire story of the Great Sony Hack is essentially the sorry story of a misunderstanding and cultural insensitivity ― and also of exceptional tactlessness. The actions of all sides can be understood and are generally rational, but the results are not good for anyone.To start with, one cannot condone the initial decision of Sony Pictures to make a movie mocking and glamorizing the assassination of a real, living person. While the author believes in the right to freedom of speech, creating such a film as an act of utter tastelessness and is liable to elicit a response. It is not incidental that so far no other movie dealt with such topic. The only exception might a British 2006 film about likely consequences of Pr

Dec 28, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Young soldiers of the supreme leader

By Andrei LankovOne of the most interesting features that a foreign visitor is bound to encounter when they are in North Korea is the sight of children going to school with a peculiar red scarf.People who have been exposed to life in communist countries would immediately recognize this red scarf as a sign that the child in question belongs to a local branch of the Young Pioneers ― the children’s wing of the communist party.This scarf is rather similar to the scarves worn by boy’s scouts and girl guides other countries. This is not a coincidence; in the early 1920s, when the communist party in Soviet Russia decided to create a specialized part of the party to supervise the indoctrination of children. They imported a lot of established rituals from the boy scouts, though they were careful not to admit this.In turn, when the North Korean Worker’s Party created its own child’s wing in 1946, this organization was patterned on the experiences and principals of its Soviet prototype. For a brief while, this borrowing was recognised openly, but when relations between t

Dec 14, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

1st cautious step on a slippery slope

By Andrei LankovThings are beginning to change in North Korea ― or so it seems. For decades, the world has expected that, sooner or later, North Korea would emulate the remarkable success story of China. It was assumed that eventually the North Korean government would start switching to a market economy, while still keeping its Juche rhetoric and authoritarianism.For a long time, optimists were disappointed. Reforms, seemingly long overdue, have not happened for decades. There was good reason for the North Korean government’s unwillingness to embrace reform: in a divided country such moves are likely to be dangerous.Nonetheless, it seems that the new Pyongyang leadership has decided to take the risk. Judging from recent reports, it seems that the new leadership has begun where it should begin ― in agriculture.Well, actually the change began two years ago. On the June 28, 2012, Kim Jong-un delivered instructions dealing with agricultural reform. In essence, the instructions envisioned two major changes to the way agriculture worked.First, the production team which has hitherto n

Nov 30, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

The rich and poor in North Korea

By Andrei LankovThere are lots of cliches used to describe North Korea, one of the most common is that this place is a “a destitute country where the common people starve and the rulers live in unimaginable luxury.” Both parts of this description are wrong.To start with, it is true that the average North Korean lives in great poverty, and is frequently malnourished. Death from starvation is not a great threat any more however.It is also true that the Kim family has a luxurious lifestyle. However, lesser tiers of the North Korean elite live much more modestly than many might imagine. The income and consumption habits of these people are light years behind that of Arab oil sheikhs.North Korea’s top family, currently consisting of a couple of dozen people, indeed lives in great luxury. Recently, Dennis Rodman, having visited Kim Jong-un’s private residence in Wonsan, described the place as Kim Jong-un’s private “Ibiza.” He liked everything, the palace itself, the food, as well as the Supreme Leader’s private yacht. Dennis Rodman himself is

Nov 16, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Attempts to 're-creat' past

By Andrei Lankov North Korea is an extremely nationalistic place. As was the case in most communist states, as time went by, nationalism gradually and quietly replaced revolutionary internationalism as its de facto ideology ― though internationalist slogans are occasionally repeated and used when it suits the foreign policy goals of the country.However, nationalism, at least in its modern variety, is deeply connected with history. An old joke, probably invented in the early 1900s when nationalism reigned supreme in Europe, said that kids only had to be taught two subjects in primary school: military training, so people would know how to shoot and history so they would know whom to shoot. Sometimes it seems that North Korea’s approach to history is a living relic of this era.Virtually all nationalists across the globe want to believe that their country has a unique and proud history and, in the past, dominated huge expanses of land. The North Korean version of history is no exception.In recent years, North Korean historians have begun to claim that the so-called Taedong Riv

Nov 2, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

TV takes boredom to new level

By Andrei LankovIn October 2010, the world media reported that something unusual had happened in North Korea: the main (and for most North Koreans the only) TV channel had shown a British movie on prime time. This movie was none “Bend it like Beckham,” a light-hearted comedy about an Indian girl who wants to play football.The movie was rather heavily censored, but this somewhat unusual showing has been nonetheless presented as a breakthrough. It was said to be the first time a that a Western movie had been shown on North Korean TV, although this was not the case. In the late 1980s, films of Western origin were occasionally shown on North Korean TV.However, apart from the Western films ― which are very rare indeed ― some other foreign movies are shown on North Korean TV. According to the estimates from 2009 to 2012, North Korean Central Television broadcast 219 foreign movies and foreign TV shows. However, with the sole exception of ``Bend it like Beckham,” all these shows and films were Chinese or Russian (usually from the Soviet era, because of ideological consider

Oct 5, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

An alien-free country

By Andrei Lankov According to South Korean statistics, 1.6 million foreigners reside in South Korea (almost 3 percent of the country’s total population). But what about South Korea’s northern neighbor? How many foreigners reside permanently in North Korea?We are not talking here about foreign embassy staff or international relief agency staff. They are a relatively small group that, together with their families, number less than 1,000. Additionally, this group is composed of individuals who usually only spend a few months or few years inside the country before leaving. They also seldom speak Korean and are almost always kept isolated from North Korean society at large.Currently, there is only one group of permanent foreign residents in North Korea. This is the hwagyo, Chinese residents of North Korea; citizens of China whose ancestors moved to Korea in the early 20th century. Once upon a time, there was a significant number of hwagyo, but of late their numbers have dwindled to 5,000 or so.Unlike other foreigners, hwagyo live lives not all that different from the live

Sep 21, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Racial diatribes of N. Ko

By Andrei Lankov White House Press Secretary Jay Carney recently expressed his outrage at some personal remarks aimed by the North Korean media at President Barack Obama.The North Korean media is not known for the temperance and politeness with which it critiques foreign leaders. Politicians who are currently out of favor in Pyongyang are routinely pilloried as “bastards,” “treacherous rogues,” “spineless lackeys” and the like.At any rate, all such epithets are de rigor for not only North Korea’s opinion pieces, but even its regular news coverage (TV included). The North Koreans had to get really base and vulgar, and attack the president on grounds that any other state-owned news agency would see as beyond the pale.On May 2, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a slightly unusual piece which included alleged letters from North Koreans readers about President Obama’s recent trip to East Asia.A recurrent theme throughout was that Obama is nothing more than an African monkey and a subhuman. Some quotes will suffice to show

May 18, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

No need to worry for Pyongyang

By Andrei Lankov So, North Korea has been warned: it will pay an “unimaginable price” if it dares to conduct a fourth nuclear test, as Yun Byung-se, South Korea’s foreign minister said recently.Minister Yun seems to be in good company while making such dire warnings. North Korea hinting that a new nuclear test is expected to take place soon, and the outside world reacts to these indications in a very predictable manner. In recent weeks, North Korean ambassadors in a number of countries, including Germany, the U.K., and perhaps even China, were summoned by the governments of their host nations who explained to them that North Korea would suffer grievously, if it dared to conduct another nuclear test.This campaign reminds me of “Team America: World Police,” a 2004 movie and an amusing satire of modern politics, in which the late Kim Jong-il, father of the current Kim, is one of the main characters. In a scene from the movie, a U.N. representative threatens the North Korean strongman, demanding compliance with U.N. regulations, “or else we will w

Apr 20, 2014By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Refugees: A change of heart

By Andrei LankovThe Ministry of Unification has published its statistics on the number of North Koreans who defected to the South in 2013.According to the statistics, there were 1,516 new arrivals ― almost the same number as 2012. These statistics confirm what has been suspected for the last few years: the North Korean government has been quite successful in its ongoing attempts to curtail defections. The number of new arrivals has nearly halved compared to 2007-10 level.In the media it is easy to find stories about refugees being shot after being forcibly returned to North Korea from China or being apprehended while trying to cross the Sino-North Korean border. One should be skeptical about such stories, though.Indeed, studies indicate that around 1995 the North Korean authorities changed their policy toward defections. They began to treat those who were caught in China or on the border with remarkable leniency. In most cases, such people are interrogated (such interrogations often include torture) and then are sent to a prison camp for a short imprisonment (usually for a couple of

Apr 6, 2014By Andrei Lankov
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