Archive for the ‘kim jong il’ tag
Visiting North Korea #
This Correspondent’s Diary has a number of interesting tidbit about traveling to North Korea with the New York Philharmonic, but I found this one especially interesting:
The most delighted response is to the final encore, a piece of Korean folk music called Arirang. On both sides of the Korean divide this song evokes a longing for unity. By playing it on this occasion the Americans appear to challenge one of the main tenets of North Korean propaganda: that Americans want a divided peninsula. Of all the pieces played tonight, this one is most likely to give pause for thought among Pyongyang officials. The State Department, which has been backing the Philharmonic all the way with this trip, would very much approve of the choice (if it wasn’t actually made by people in or close to the administration).
Searching For Hope in North Korea #
The Economist’s Asia.view column does a good job profiling America’s recent history of human rights advocacy in North Korea, as well as assessing China’s push for “corporate social responsibility” within its factories there. My favorite part, if only because I share the mentioned speakers feelings, was this bit:
And a documentary film which shows two ragged young men singing a song called “Our Father, Kim Jong Il”, in praise of the country’s dictator, hears one of them comment “Pretty lousy father”—a rare crack in the facade of national devotion.
None of this gives much cause for hope. But as one conference speaker put it, it is better to be an optimist and wrong than a pessimist and right. In North Korea, it is also harder.