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North Korea: Life in cultural isolation
20 December 2011 Magazine Share
It's one of the most closed and In today's secretive nations on Earth. But in the Magazine last 18 months, two BBC journalists have witnessed some of the more Kim Il-sung died but is still the president
Little girls smiling widely and dancing in perfect formation, little boys in smart red Team America suits and painted faces singing praises to star the country's Great Leader.
It started off faintly charming. But with mask-like faces and rigid grins, even children become rather sinister.
More children are employed to sweep the ◾ On Twitter, it wasn't steps leading up to the 60ft bronze statue the nuclear threat or of the Great Leader, which dominates the regional instability Pyongyang. that was uppermost in people's minds after Kim Il-sung died 16 years ago but he's still Jong-il's death the country's president, and there are ◾ Instead, the 2004 more than 500 statues of him. comedy film Team America: World Police "He's immortal," a 24-year-old-guide was trending, meaning explained. "We don't believe he passed it was one of the most away." mentioned tweets
The film, by the Sue Lloyd Roberts, May 2010 ◾ creators of South Park, features Thunderbirds- The bizarre world of North Korea style puppets and starred Kim Jong-il as Those who leave the country find it an evil dictator with hard to adjust limited English
No wonder the 3,000 or so North Koreans who escape this, the most isolated and secretive country in the world, and arrive in South Korea every year feel as though they have landed on another planet.
South Koreans can use their mobile phones to pay in the supermarket, there are more and faster broadband connections per person than in any other country in the world and, if you are feeling frivolous, there are cameras and touchscreen keyboards along the main shopping streets to allow you to send a photo to a friend.
All new arrivals from North Korea spend months in special government schools to learn how to cope with the 21st Century.
Sue Lloyd Roberts, June 2010
No-one has access to the internet
North Korean TV only broadcasts hagiographies of the two leaders and Platform shoes pictures celebrating the country's army, and rainbows model farms, model villages etc.
Our minders had probably never seen any other kinds of news item or documentary about their country or the rest of the world.
They were not allowed to, and they could ◾ Jong-il assumed power not, because no-one has access to the after his father's death internet in North Korea. ◾ Had 30 years of Instead, the North Koreans have a special preparation for office internal intranet which I was shown at ◾ Wore platform shoes to Pyongyang University. appear taller
A postgraduate metallurgy student who ◾ Loved food and drink spoke good English explained that he could not compare his research with a ◾ During a train journey across Russia, fellow student in say, London or Los reportedly had live Angeles, because the system would not lobsters airlifted in let him. ◾ Officially, he was born But, he added brightly, "the Dear leader in a log cabin has kindly put all we need to know on our ◾ The event was intranet system". reportedly marked by a double rainbow and a Sue Lloyd Roberts, June 2010 bright star in the sky Pavements are scrubbed clean by hand Obituary: Kim Jong- il North Korea is about as isolated from the rest of the world as it is possible to be. There are few visitors and most of those are restricted to looking around a few chosen spots in Pyongyang.
Isolation has allowed the North Koreans to develop a way of living seldom seen elsewhere.
People cut the roadside grass with scissors, a time-consuming act, and wash the city pavements with scrubbing brushes and cloths, items usually reserved for the home.
The city is drab and colourless and there are few new buildings going up.
Michael Bristow, October 2010
North Korea: Where pavements are washed by hand
The country's leaders have special flowers
Politics is everywhere in North Korea - even in the flowers. The country's leader Kim Jong-il and his father, the North's founder Kim Il-sung, both have flowers named after them.
There is currently an exhibition in central Pyongyang showcasing the two blooms, called the "Kimjongilia" and the "Kimilsungia".
It was a holiday in North The two blooms are called Korea on Monday, and "Kimjongilia" and "Kimilsungia" hundreds of people - soldiers, couples and families with children - wandered around the exhibition centre. Many had their photographs taken in front of the flowers. It is a measure of the devotion some people show towards the only two men to have ruled this secretive communist state.
I was given another glimpse of that respect from Pak Mi-gyong, an English-speaking guide at the floral exhibition.
I asked to take her picture in front of a giant portrait of the two Mr Kims that hung at one end of the main hall. She warned me that when taking a photograph I must be careful and include the men's whole bodies in the frame.
"They are our leaders and we respect them from the bottom of our hearts. We don't allow other people to cut the pictures of them," she said, a little angrily.
Michael Bristow, October 2010
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