Now on My Way to Meet Who? South Korean Television, North Korean Refugees, and the Dilemmas of Representation

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Now On My Way to Meet Who? South Korean Television, North Korean Refugees, and the Dilemmas of Representation

Christopher K. Green, Stephen Epstein

Introduction demographic shift. Nevertheless, other than journalistic treatment, only a limited number of In 2011, the recently established South Korean South Korean scholars (e.g. Tae and Hwang broadcasting network Channel-A launched Ije 2012; Oh 2013) and Western academic mannareo gamnida (Now on My Way to Meet bloggers (Draudt and Gleason 2012) have thus You), a program whose format brings together far investigated the show and its larger social a group of a dozen or more femaletalbukja ramifications. In this paper, we ask howNow (North Korean refugees)2 on a weekly basis. on My Way to Meet You is to be understood These women interact with host Nam Hui-seok, within the contexts of South Korean society, its an additional female co-host (or, in the earlier evolving media culture, and developments in episodes, two), and a panel composed of four South Korean popular representations of North male South Korean entertainers. Episodes Koreans. We offer close readings of segments typically open in a lighthearted manner, with from Ije mannareo gamnida in order to elicit conversation about daily life in North Korea motifs that recur as it pursues its stated goal of alongside mild flirtation between the Southern humanizing North Korea for a South Korean male and Northern female participants, often audience and giving defectors a voice amidst involving song and dance, but climax with a the general populace. Given that the show’s talbuk seuteori, an emotionally harrowing very title intimates that a genuine encounter is narrative from one of the border-crossers about to take place, one might reasonably ask detailing her exodus from North Korea. Via this how successfully Ije mannareo gamnida framework Ije mannareo gamnida attempts to establishes a meeting point for South Koreans nurture the integration of North Korean with these recent arrivals from North Korea: in refugees into South Korean society;other words, does the show fulfill its stated aim personalization of their plight occurs inof breaking down prejudices against North conjunction with reminders of a shared Korean Korean refugees and supplying them with a identity maintained despite the regime they vehicle that allows self-expression?3 Or, have fled, which is depicted as cruel, repressive alternatively, does it reinforce, even if and backward. The show has proven a minor unintentionally, pre-existing regimes of hit within South Korea and received coverage knowledge and actually impede understanding from local and global media (see, e.g., Kim of North Korea and its people? As we will 2012; Choi 2012; Noce 2012). argue, given the broader sociopolitical context, the show’s desire to reinforce elements of The unusual subject matter ofIje mannareo commonality between North and South while gamnida itself renders the show worthy of illuminating life in North Korea leads to a analysis; equally significantly, it offers a useful double bind: viewers are encouraged to window into attempts to address South Korea’s recognize homogeneity with the newcomers increasingly diverse society, which nowbased on a shared ethnic and cultural identity, includes a large number of North Koreans, as even as the conversations and editing well as media practice in the face of this techniques applied to the material often

1 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF represent the Northern panelists as Others. approximately 70% are female (Kim 2013).

This explosion in the number of North Koreans living in South Korea has coincided with significant developments in governmental approaches to the North. The Sunshine Policy, under which South Korea adopted a more open approach toward North Korea between 1998 and 2008, laid the groundwork for new understandings of the North-South relationship and how this relationship might be portrayed in popular culture (Kim 2007; Bevan 2010). Until then, Southern portraits of North Koreans had been almost inevitably monochromatic, treating Figure 1: “The longing of 61 years, the counterparts across the 38th Parallel as dreams of 61 years...now on my way to virulently evil Communists or downtrodden, meet you.” brainwashed automatons. From around the turn of the millennium, though, such depictions Now on Our Way to Ije Mannareo Gamnida began to encompass ever more multifaceted and sympathetic renderings of the life worlds of The debut of, and attention accorded to,Ije North Koreans, most notably in the Mannareo Gamnida, or Imangap, as it has come blockbusters Shiri (1999) andJ.S.A.: Joint to be nicknamed, rely on phenomena that have Security Area (2000). As discussed by one of made the show compelling to audiences now the co-authors for this journal (Epstein 2009a), when its very appearance could scarcely have frequently light-hearted modes of presentation been imagined even a decade ago. Perhaps also surfaced, which included a number of B- most importantly, the size and demographic movie comedies that envisioned romances profile of the defector population within South between Northern and Southern protagonists, Korea has undergone significant change in such as the 2003 movie trio Namnam bungnyeo recent years. Stirred initially by the disastrous (Love Impossible), Geunyeoreul moreumyeon North Korean famine of the 1990s, the number gancheop (Spy Girl) and Donghaemulgwa of talbukja arrivals grew steadily to one to two baekdusani (North Korean Guyz). The thousand each year between 2002 and 2005, simultaneous appearance of these films, though and then climbed to an annual level of two to seemingly coincidental, clearly responded to an three thousand in the period between 2006 and atmosphere of hopefulness about North-South 2010. This rapid growth has been accompanied reconciliation after the 2000 summit meeting by a marked shift in the gender distribution of between former leaders Kim Dae-jung and Kim refugees.4 Although the majority of defectors Jong-il. were male up through the end of the twentieth century, as the trickle of those escaping from Ironically, however, another corollary effect of North Korea grew into a steadier flow, more the warming at the state level was to move North Korean women began to cross into China troubling issues involving defectors out of (Lankov 2006). Most have stayed in China or policy discourse. Both the Kim Dae-jung and returned to North Korea, but many have Roh Moo-hyun administrations avoided shining travelled on to South Korea. As of 2013, there too bright a light on the sufferings of incoming exists a substantial community of roughly North Koreans out of a concern that doing so 25,000 talbukja in South Korea; among these, might cause the North Korean government to

2 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF protest strenuously and retreat fromA recent significant change in the structure of engagement. Politically prominent defectors South Korea’s media has also played a critical who might otherwise have acted as leaders of role in the arrival of Ije mannareo gamnida: a the fledgling defector community, most notably controversial bill passed under the Lee former Workers’ Party International Secretary government in 2009 granted permission for the Hwang Jang-yop, were restricted in their first time to print media companies to operate movements, partly for their own security. television networks. Furthermore these new comprehensive broadcasting channels (jonghap In late 2007, however, the South Korean public pyeonseong cheneol, or jongpyeon for short) voted in Lee Myung-bak and a far more have extended operational powers that allow conservative administration. The subsequent them to create educational and publically shooting of a Southern civilian by a DPRK oriented programs to be disseminated more soldier at the Mt. Geumgang tourist resort zone broadly and thus make them more similar to in summer 2008 then pushed the newlarge terrestrial networks than other cable government into an even harder stance against channels. The Kim and Roh administrations had North Korea than most had anticipated. North maintained the state regulation of a previous Korea’s second nuclear test in 2009, the March era; given the finances of the South Korean 2010 sinking of a ROK Navy vessel, and the mediascape, the companies best positioned to shelling of Yeonpyeong Island that November, take advantage of any such modification would which brought two civilian deaths, heightened have been far from progressive. While skepticism throughout society aboutconsideration of the many issues occasioned by possibilities for rapprochement withthis change and the bitter debate that they Pyongyang. have aroused within Korea lie beyond the scope of this paper (for more see T. Kim 2011), for Moreover, such events have spurred a renewed our purposes it is important to note that the focus on North Korean refugees and expedited palette of South Korean television now the increasing influence of those working to incorporates within its pigmentation such raise awareness of their plight. This trend has outlets as Channel-A, owned by the led, for example, to defector Cho Myung-chul, conservative Dong-A Ilbo, and TV Chosun, former director of the Institute for Unification affiliated via its parent company with the Education, becoming a lawmaker in theChosun Ilbo, widely recognized as the nation’s National Assembly. There he has found a like- most notable right-wing daily. Both have minded colleague in Ha Tae-kyung, themaintained close relationships with the Lee and controversial founder of Open Radio for North Park administrations and strive to highlight Korea, a Seoul-based shortwave radio station North Korean refugee issues.5 Their activity that broadcasts across the border on human contributes to a media environment in which rights and related issues. It also has meant that criticism of North Korea is now less likely to be former espionage agent Kim Hyeon-hui,blunted than it had been, but also more likely imprisoned for the bombing of a Korean Air jet to convey the authenticity of first-hand in 1987 but now rehabilitated and highly reportage and therefore frequently critical of the North Korean regime, could controversial.6 appear in the media where once she was kept out of the public eye. Meanwhile, the National These developments have not gone unnoticed Human Rights Commission began documenting by the DPRK itself, which recently launched a abuses suffered by North Koreans within the scathing attack in the Rodong Sinmun on South DPRK in a deliberate infringement of North Korean media treatment of defectors, Korean state sovereignty. particularly females:

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The south Korean puppet group is depictions of talbukja in South Korean media resorting to the smear campaign and popular discourse, and although there has against the DPRK, trumpeting been a recent spate of sympathetic fictionalized about the "human rights record" in treatment of Northern male spies in South the north, Kang Kyong Suk noted, Korean film (Jung 2013; Kwon 2013), actual and went on: border-crossers are now overwhelmingly represented with a female face. While the The group set up even a TV Korean phrase namnam“ bungnyeo” (lit. channel specializing in conducting southern man, northern woman) predates the an anti-DPRK smear campaign, division of the peninsula, the existence of this letting “defectors from the north” trope suggesting the most desired origins for appear in programs. each member of a Korean couple has fostered an exoticization of Northern women, who are It went the lengths of bringing often depicted as retaining a traditional, together those “who were not wholesome beauty lost by their Southern defectors from the north” and counterparts (Epstein 2009a). Such female staging such burlesque as an art talbukja are subject to ambivalent responses in performance by a "group of South Korea, however: they may be denigrated beautiful girls, defectors from the as the recipients of a blinkered education in the north," in the heart of Seoul as North that has left them ignorant, or part of the smear campaign patronized as trafficking victims during their against the north. 7 transit through China, a characterization that not only carries with it stigma but takes little This counteroffensive suggests a reframing of account of the agency evinced by many in North Korea’s own representations of South seeking to improve their lives and those of their Korea. Where focus once centered upon South families via marriage brokers (Kim 2013; Ryang Korea’s sufferings under American imperialism, 2012). Unsurprisingly, the ideological and th now defectors in South Korea themselves are cultural gulf that has arisen across the 38 drawing attention, with their lives described for Parallel over the course of almost 70 years has the North Korean audience in a demeaning way meant estrangement and difficulties in that displaces the humiliations of capitalist adaptation for these border-crossers, both in society onto former DPRK compatriots, with a terms of their own abilities to cope with the forceful message that those who remain behind new environment and the attitudes of the host indeed have “nothing to envy.” This evolving society. strategy offers indirect, but ample, proof that the barriers preventing information about the However, Imangap should not be understood outside world from entering the DPRK are through the inter-Korean lens alone, for the becoming increasingly porous. The Dong-A Ilbo show also reflects South Korea’s growing has recently reported that a young elite North diversity. The number of foreigners living in Korean woman studying in Beijing defected as Korea as of June 2013 topped 1.5 million, 9 a result of watching Imangap. If verified, this roughly 3% of the population. Of course, the claim would reaffirm the urgency of this process of integrating foreign residents into reframing.8 South Korean society has not always been smooth. The government has devoted the There appears little doubt as well that the majority of its attention to female marriage lopsided demographics of the refugeemigrants, whom it has strived to assimilate community have driven increasingly gendered within the national fabric. Nonetheless, many

4 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF of these initiatives, though explicitly heralding The attention accorded to Now on My Way to a new era of multiculturalism and aimed at Meet You derives, then, in part from its ensuring proper access to South Korean social intersection with current political and infrastructure, have featured a heavy-sociocultural trends. A crucial further factor, handedness that attempts to convert incoming however, in the show’s ability to garner an individuals into proper South Korean subjects, audience, especially locally, is its engagement and has led to efforts to, if not erase, then at with prevailing tastes in contemporary South least subordinate pre-existing non-SouthKorean television. As ayeneung (variety Korean identities (Lim 2009; Watson 2010). entertainment) program, it draws on an omnipresent talk-show format, in which a Media examples of such top-down responses group of several figures who are already, or are have included shows like KBS’ Love in Asia, poised to become, familiar to viewers gather which features the appearance of married with a host or two and occasionally an couples in which one partner, almost invariably additional panel to laugh, joke and discuss.10 In the wife, is foreign. Typically, the members of this regard, Imangap deliberately mimics KBS’ the couple discuss their lives and are filmed in Minyeodeul-ui suda (Global Talk Show, more their homes, and a trip is made back to visit the literally “The Chatter of Beauties”), or Misuda, wife’s family in her country of origin. Images as it was commonly known, a popular program repeated from show to show reinforce a narrow that aired between 2006 and 2010 and featured set of conceptions: that the husband hails from a group of young, female foreign residents South Korea’s lower socioeconomic strata; that discussing their lives in South Korea in Korean, the wife has come from an even poorer nation; with a presenter and a panel of local males who that painful family separations are to be ensured a flirtatious subtext. Several of the endured for the chance of a better life in women on the show appeared weekly, with wealthy South Korea, where the wife works some becoming regulars in domestic diligently to accommodate herself to local advertisements and on South Korean mores; and that, for the most part, those in the television’s variety show circuit. family’s immediate orbit respond with displays of the affectionate solicitude known in Korea as The influence ofMisuda on Imangap is jeong to the new arrival. Though empathetic, underscored not only in the prosody of their such treatment has also been criticized for nicknames, but also in the fact that the two being patronizing or ignoring the diversity share the same primary host, Nam Hui-seok, among immigrants to Korea (Jeong et al. 2011). and that a Misuda panelist, Bronwyn Mullen, The recurrent themes suggest an effort on the acted initially as co-host on Imangap, although part of government-sponsored media to offer she was later dropped. The regular praise that not only reassurance that the nation is being a the talbukja guests on Imangap receive as welcoming host as its demography evolves but endearing beauties (minyeo) further reinforces also reminders that further education remains this connection, as does the show’s subtitle, necessary in the face of reports thattalbuk minyeodeul-ui hamkke-wa haneun isan newcomers encounter prejudice. One might gajok gamdong peurojekteu, an exceedingly readily argue that Imangap, whose production difficult phrase to translate idiomatically. (A is openly supported by the Ministry ofliteral rendering leads to the tongue-twisting Unification, stems from a similar desire to “Separated family emotion project together 11 almost will into being the acceptance and with Northern escapee beauties.”) Both shows assimilation of North Koreans. have frequent recourse to conversations about cultural difference, a fondness for quiz-like The Chatter of (North Korean) Beauties games to pique audience interest and elicit

5 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF information about such difference, and a studio celebrities in the making. While most arrangement in which the presenters, female commentators have noted the salient links panelists and male panelists are seatedbetween Misuda and Imangap, fewer have separately around a central floor area for noted another source of genetic material for performance. the latter show: KBS’ long-running Geu sarami bogo sipda (lit. “The Person I Miss”), which relied on riveting narratives of anguish from those seeking to locate loved ones from whom they had been separated and in the process opened remarkable windows of oral history onto South Korea’s recent past. The already cited subtitle of Imangap, with its explicit pointer to divided families and meetings after a long absence, suggests a clear connection to Figure 2: KBS’ Global Talk Show and its Geu sarami bogo sipda,which converted North Korea-focused imitator Now on my painful personal narratives into grist for the Way to Meet You. collective understanding of South Korea’s frequently traumatic development experience (cf. Tae and Hwang 2012).12 The format of Ije mannareo gamnida thus operates within a tested formula of chat with Geu sarami bogo sipda ran for several years, attractive women who are intriguingly foreign and as time passed the pool of those searching but able to engage with South Korean society. for family members with whom they had lost Personalities emerge with whom viewers are contact shrank: the show made its way through encouraged to form an imagined affective bond the backlog of people wanting to appear, and through regular contact. Each show’s popular others presumably conducted their own panelists refer upon occasion to their own successful searches as Korea became highly Internet “cafés,” a specifically Korean type of digitized. An increasing percentage of those social media site that allows interactionwho made their way on to the show were between celebrities and their fans. Likeinternational adoptees, an evolution that Misuda, Imangap reflects the growing encouraged a consciousness that the unhealed prominence of young women within South wounds of South Korea’s past were Korea’s societal fabric and its media-saturated progressively being played out beyond its consumer capitalism that values youthful borders. Likewise, other programs that femininity as a commodity that can beinvolved tearful tales of separation and reunion converted into cultural content (Y. Kim 2011). among Korea’s immigrant community, such as Love in Asia, Sadon cheoeum boepgesseumnida However, one should not go too far in pushing (Meet the In-Laws) and the “Asia! Asia!” the parallels between Misuda and Imangap: the segment on Neukkimpyo (Exclamation Point), northern origins of the guests on the latter further fostered a sense that the nation had show inevitably lend it a serious undercurrent itself outgrown these problems, become more absent from its more resolutely upbeatprosperous, and was now standing in a forerunner, whose immigrant panelists arrived hierarchical relationship to less developed in Korea under happier, entirely voluntary neighbors, toward whom viewers could feel a circumstances, and whose occasional travails in mixture of sympathy in remembering South Korean society as foreigners are offset (or Korea’s own similar tales, and relief in an superseded) by special treatment accorded to acknowledgment that the nation was moving on

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(Epstein 2009b). favored opening tone of light banter that often features romance and matchmaking as a subtext.

This interchange continues with the introduction of actor Kim San-ho, a handsome new male panelist. For his debut onIje mannareo gamnida, he performs “Sandy” from the musical Grease, eventually crossing the stage to serenade Shin Eun-ha, characterized on the show as one of its two most notable minyeo. The attention that Kim lavishes upon her provokes embarrassment, though not displeasure; editorialized subtitling reinforces the pseudo-romantic atmosphere (“the moment Eun-ha falls in love” reads one caption as Kim Figure 3: Screenshot of “The Person I kneels by her side and sings).14 Embarrassment Miss" (Geu sarami bogo sipda) featuring is an emotion that the show plays to, as do an American adoptee seeking relatives in many Korean entertainment programs (and Korea social occasions in which icebreaking is desired), in an attempt to create a sense of intimacy by breaking down barriers that arise Joint Insecurity Area from the stern maintenance ofchemyeon In order now to flesh out observations sketched (face). Here the ploy takes on additional above, let us consider in detail characteristic piquancy from the way that it attempts to break segments of Ije mannareo gamnida that down boundaries between North and South but demonstrate the show’s strategies inalso suggests that a shyness born of representing North Korea and North Koreans unfamiliarity and lifetimes of preconceptions to a South Korean national public. In tracing impedes freer interaction. The insistent how the show moves from lighthearted opening recourse to the namnam bungnyeo trope is to more serious finale, we have chosen to focus difficult to ignore. first on a close reading of Episode 45, broadcast in October 2012, not least because Channel-A has uploaded a number of segments Remaining equally good-natured but shifting of this particular show on YouTube and their towards quasi-burlesque, the spotlight moves availability will allow readers to assess our to panelist Jo Se-ho, a rotund comedian, who interpretations independently.13 mimics the stretching exercises performed by children on North Korean television as they The episode starts in a conversation with the mobilize the DPRK in daily calisthenics. Shin so-called “S4,” the show’s quartet of featured Eun-ha and her sister Shin Eun-hui, also a Southern male panelists, and the news that one panelist on the show, join him. As they stretch, of its regular members will soon be marrying a a caption declares, “From Daehongdan potato woman seven years his junior. Thisto rhythmic gymnastics challenge.” The announcement leads to words of teasing allusion to Daehongdan County in Ryanggang congratulation from one of the North Korean Province would likely occasion a nod of ironic female panelists and well illustrates the show’s recognition from talbukja viewers to whom the

7 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF site is well known for a visit from Kim Jong-il at Such strategies exemplify how Episode 45 the peak of the 1990s famine, during which pursues the show’s stated goals of combating Kim declared that potatoes are equal to rice, stereotypes and allowing empowering forms of putting a cynically favorable spin on the self-expression, but in ambivalent form. Similar desperate need to substitute potatoes for the ambiguities arise in the following segment. The nation’s preferred staple.15 Regular viewers of audience now meets Choe Geum-sil, a guest the program would also recognize thepanelist who will later be featured in the reference, as two earlier episodes, numbers 32 episode’s talbuk seuteori. Choe is treated as a and 41, had made digs at the sophistry of celebrity, in that she recently won a regional regime rhetoric. The former, which came from heat of a long-running amateur singing contest North Korean television, displayed a young boy televised by KBS, “Jeon-guk norae jarang” (lit. singing an ode, in typically studied North “Nationwide Song Pride”). Given that talbukja Korean style, to the marvels of the Daehongdan make up only a small, if noteworthy, fraction of potato (“Daehongdan potatoes are so huge you the total population, its successes usually can’t finish an entire one”), and, by extension, summon the attention of both the South Korean the pleasures of life under Kim Jong-il.16 The and international media.19 A natural performer, latter had Jo reprise the boy’s performance in a Choe introduces herself in the brashly routine where he too sings about theconfident manner that is de rigueur for Korean remarkable tuber and provokes hearty laughter TV competitions, albeit with the addition of from all other participants on the show.17 Northern declamatory mannerisms, and then offers the audience a brief rendition of the song that gained her first prize. Here in Episode 45, Jo tells us, in humorous self-deprecation, that he rehearsed until 4 a.m. the previous evening with the Shin sisters in The yeneung program format urges singing, order to be able to produce the well-dancing, and demonstrations of athleticism choreographed routine that we are to witness. generally. Imangap appears to favor such First, a clip is played of children performing the vignettes more than most, however, not only stretching exercises in a park outsidebecause the North Korean education system Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace in attempts to instill these skills in its people, but Pyongyang, with a subtitle that informs the because artistic display provides a relatively audience that Kim Jong-il instituted theinnocuous method for allowing difference to exercise regimen in 1994. The program thus shine through, while nonetheless encouraging offers an opportunity for deeper understanding feelings of warmth.20 Few episodes go by of North Korean society; however, delivery of without multiple songs, the majority of which this information is unlikely to registerrelate to either the glory of the Kim family uppermost in viewers’ minds: Jo’s incongruous and/or a tenet of North Korean socialist imitation of the children’s shorts and knee-high morality. 21 In this case, the traditional Korean socks turns the sequence into an entertaining style of the song that Choe performs vignette that renders the North endearingly transcends the history of division in reflecting quaint. Furthermore, multiple cutaways to the the shared culture of North and South, but the bare legs and lower body of Shin Eun-ha as revelation that Choe honed her vocal and they perform these calisthenics suggest that, oratorical prowess, of which she also gives a above all, the show’s producers simplysample, as part of a propaganda troupe in a recognized an opportunity to draw attention to North Korean military unit has the opposite the participants’ attractiveness in a mildly effect. The dissonance is further emphasized by titillating fashion.18 a caption stating that the overall effect actually

8 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF resembles watching a North Korean broadcast Ominous background music as she speaks (“jeongmal bukhan bangsong boneunbuilds mock-horror film suspense, while neukkim”). Drawing viewers closer and then cutaway shots to the disgusted expressions of pushing them away in this manner exposes South Korean panelists underscore that the dilemmas at the show’s core: elementsnarrative is meant to be viscerally affecting and expressing shared traits or heritage as Koreans alien to contemporary South Korean middle are juxtaposed with those that highlight class experience, while those born in the North divergence. react with nods of recognition. Despite an avowed desire to break down barriers, editorial The program then moves on to its regular intervention, then, points up Otherness. segment of informative discussions of daily life in the North, still enlivened with a sprinkling of At this point, the show makes a transition humorous vignettes. In this episode thetoward discussion of food shortages in more audience is treated to discussion of the North serious fashion and presents archival footage of Korean state food distribution system, and the Gonan ui haenggun (“Arduous March”). dialogue about items eaten in the North Recapitulation of the famine is introduced with generates further cognitive dissonance. All the a caption that speaks of the Arduous March as Northern women acknowledge an unwelcome “the period in which North Korea’s total familiarity with kangnaenggibap, a ubiquitous distribution society collapsed.” Slowly, but mix of corn and rice eaten as a rice substitute insistently, the episode prepares for a heart- during hard times. Not one of the South Korean rending climax as production techniques work cast, by contrast, has previously tried it. The to engage sympathy. As video clips recall the host, Nam Hui-seok, now parodies thedisastrous floods and droughts of the era, presenter of another Channel-A TV show, dramatic strings, leaden drumbeats and special Meokgeori X-Pail (“The Culinary X-Files”), as sonic effects build tension. Shots of starving northern food items are trotted out for a taste children, disseminated worldwide since the test. Upon sampling the uninspiring blend, 1990s, appear, as do South Korean newspaper Nam states drolly, “It’s alright now, but after a headlines. Inset shots of the panelists’ year things would be a bit different.” The expressions emphasize the similar response of segment also carries a discussion of differences those from both North and South; host Nam between Southern and Northern varieties of adds occasional narration. The message is kimchi, but dialogue, and ability to offer clear: the famine, though having taken place in insight, stalls at the absence of seasonings the North, should be regarded as a tragedy for other than salt available to add flavor to the the entire Korean minjok (“race” or “people”). staple. Nam utters a simple declaration upon tasting the dish: “Jjamnida” (“It’s salty.”).

The show continues its discussion of the DPRK’s state distribution system with a focus on the mundane products that people receive through it. Such discussion segues into reminders of impoverished and difficult lives. One of the most popular panelists, Kim Ara, relates a story about waking up once in her North Korean home with blood trickling on her face as a result of nocturnal visitations of mice.

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tug at viewer heartstrings. The show takes advantage of personal tales of food deprivation and malnutrition to render the suffering viscerally affecting; Jo hangs his head in dismay when he hears from a panelist that of the forty children in her school class, fully fifteen could not attend school because of hunger.

Now on Our Way to Meet Who?

The inherent contradictions in the core characteristics of Imangap become perhaps most evident when one examines the strategies used for the final minutes of each episode. For Figure 4: A segment on the Arduous the most part, the culmination has been March. The caption reads "People who marked by a talbuk seuteori (“defection story”), were helpless to avoid starvation as the and even though they are presented in 100% state distribution system collapsed." manipulative fashion, it would require a heartless viewer indeed not to be moved by these powerful narratives. In a recent paper, Although the emotional manipulations are however, Oh (2013: 319) brings together a palpable, they fall readily within local traditions focus group oftalbukja to discuss their of melodrama and are not merely expected but perceptions of how border-crossers are even perhaps desired; rather more troubling is presented in South Korean media, and their a cavalier attitude towards documentary discussion of Imangap in particular suggests accuracy in the montage: the footage of one that the show is a target for substantial woman in the piece comes from the end of the criticism among the defector community 2000s,22 suggesting that the show’s producers precisely for how it portrays them as objects of were more concerned with images of suffering pity. Many of Oh’s interviewees feel that Now in the DPRK than historical veracity.on My Way to Meet You willfully, if not Hackneyed shots of goose-stepping soldiers are maliciously, misrepresents them: “If [South included as well, carrying with them the Koreans] see that, they’ll likely say that the implicit subtext that the decisions of an women left North Korea because they couldn’t uncaring regime to prioritize military needs live there, couldn’t adapt [to the changes in extended the scale of disaster. As the montage North Korean society]” one interviewee ends, a caption nunsiuri“ bulgeojin talbuk comments. “It’d be good to go to Channel-A minyeodeul” (“the reddened eyes of refugee and ask them to stop the show. Too many lies,” beauties”) drives home the cruelty of visiting adds another. Indeed, dominant media human-created catastrophe upon the innocent, representations of North Koreans in South who also happen to be—lest the viewer has Korea fail to acknowledge that a substantial forgotten— attractive young women, while the percentage of border-crossers actively select studio camera pans to shots of thetalbukja both the time and place of their departure from panelists composing themselves as the film North Korea, and that they do so to meet clips fade. The video returns to discussion of specific life goals, such as obtaining education the Arduous March period through thein South Korea, and utilize the human capital memories of the panelists, and does not stint on they have available to access opportunity in a continued backdrop of sentimental music to China and South Korea (Kim 2013).

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Many recent episodes ofImangap , however, The incongruity in Lee’s defection story is have taken a different approach to the final highlighted by the opening question from one moments of the show and bring before the host, who asks why she chose to defect given audience narratives oftalbuk seonggong that she had been living a comparatively (“refugee success”) rather than the typically comfortable life, doing work for the Korean heart-rending tales that focus on the process of People’s Army that was not onerous, and was flight from North Korea itself. Regardless of blessed with goodchulsin seongbun, the whether the show’s producers have been system through which the perceived loyalty of a consciously responding to criticism from South North Korean citizen to the regime is classified. Korean academics and the media,talbuk Lee answers that the money she earned from seonggong narratives patently do return her daily work with the military had become agency to defectors instead of painting them as insufficient to buy even a kilo of rice on the downtrodden victims. In this section a regular open market. Furthermore, she suffered from panelist, or, more frequently, a third party, domestic violence at the hands of her husband. explains what she (or even, occasionally, he) As a result of the growing divergence between has achieved since arriving in South Korea, and market prices and her income, Lee and her how. For example, Episode 41 introduces a younger sibling were driven slowly into poverty woman who owns and operates a Korean and, ultimately, forced to embark on a beggar’s restaurant with a menu of 160 dishes, and life (kkotjebi saenghwal). Upon mention of how Episode 46 presents another who, driven by the Lee turned to begging for survival, the show’s desire to provide her young daughter with a producers raise the level of emotional intensity, better life, worked night and day to build up a bringing in piano accompaniment as she micro-empire of convenience stores.23 comments that everybody in North Korea, from children to the elderly, will have experienced kkotjebi saenghwal at some point in their life. To conclude our analysis of the show, let us An on-screen caption, “eorinaibuteo noinkkaji juxtapose these divergent concludingharuachime kkotjebiga doeneun sinse” (“hard strategies, one in which defection is marked by life where anyone from young to old can desperation, suffering and a lack of thebecome a beggar in an instant”), reinforces the exercise of free will, and the other in which it hyperbolic point. encompasses successful transition to neo- liberal subjectivity and acquisition of economic The high emotional tenor of the narrative, benefits in South Korea. The lurching between which is packed with tragic events, continues the two poles highlights the broaderas Lee reveals how she had to give birth on the uncertainties that underpin Imangap. street near a train station in a Ryanggang Province border city. Moreover, she claims to The talbuk seuteori of Lee Sun-sil in Episode 28 have been forcibly repatriated no fewer than is anomalous for a variety of reasons.24 Lee is nine times, a point highlighted in the titling of older (and considerably heavier) than the this segment, “Lee Sun-sil, Nine Times typical minyeo panelist; importantly, too, she Repatriated” (“ahop beon bukseong doen hails from Pyongyang. Refugees rarely come isunsil”). On each occasion, she notes, she from the North Korean capital, and those that faced torture at the hands of the DPRK’s do find themselves viewed with suspicion security apparatus and speaks of the beatings within their community, facing assumptions she received in detail, noting how her child that that they must have done something wrong wept as it was forced to watch these wrenching that made them feel a need to escape the scenes. Menacing sound effects are added, and showpiece capital (Green and Park 2012). periodic cutaways engage empathy for the

11 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF pathos of her narrative: the horror of the hosts, the heart of your mother who longs for the pensive, downcast expression of her South unification to happen soon, please wait for Korean husband in the audience, and abundant unification and your mother. I love you.” In this tears and the shock on the faces of her fellow respect, talbuk seuteori share similarities with panelists all suggest that her story is unusually the narratives in Geu sarami bogo sipda, each distressing, even for those who have fled North of which can be read at the level of national Korea. allegory. At a more personal level, however, narratives in Geu sarami bogo sipda are Lee explains how she was eventually able to characterized by more ambiguous and abstract cross into China for good. Sharp intakes of senses of separation, in that many people are breath from others in the studio audience, trying to reconstruct dim memories of how they however, elevated in the mix, greet the news came to be separated from other family that she immediately fell victim to human members. In Imangap separation is recent and traffickers, and was deceived into selling her sharp, the grief often searingly fresh. child for a trivial sum. The narrative then moves to South Korea, whereupon Lee attempts to convey the ongoing nightmare that her life has become as a result of her experience of defection, repatriation, torture and the loss of her child in China. She states that her pains are not hers alone, claiming that 80% of defectors also live with similar psychological hardship.

Lee’s account climaxes, as do other examples of talbuk seuteori, with the display of a “gift” for an absent loved one. Regardless of whether the women choose the items on their own or are guided to an appropriate concept by the Figure 5: Presentation of a gift to an show’s producers, the embodiment of longing absent loved one. The caption reads "A box for missing family members in a physical object of rice cakes filled with yearning for a inevitably provokes moments of high emotion, daughter." and when Lee displays the intended gift of a mother and child teddy bear pair, there is scarcely a dry eye to be seen in anyone present The presentation oftalbuk seonggong in the studio. The display of the gift also narratives also follows a regular pattern; 25 cements a narrative moral framework. In however, the formula differs markedly from Lee’s case, the point is that mothers belong that of the defection stories. Rather than sitting with their children come what may, but division in a panelist’s chair, the protagonist of the has rendered this natural state of affairs success story stands at a lectern, which is impossible. At this point Lee turns away from placed apart on the stage, as in a formal talk or the host and directly to the camera and a university classroom. Cameras are also apostrophizes her absent daughter,positioned differently: for the success story, the underscored by subtitles that follow her words main angle is from below and enhances the and make an explicit connection between her speaker’s authority, whereas in coming from incompleteness and that of the nation: “I miss above in the tale of defection and looking down you. I want to see you wherever you are. Like upon the speaker, camera angles intimate

12 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF powerlessness. Talbuk seonggong stories rarely apartments and private cars, mark out the speak of the time spent in North Korea, boundaries of “success” in South Korea, this whereas a talbuk seuteori is about little else. partial rechanneling of the show’s energies has Instead of a gift for a missing loved one, those led it to broadcast interpretations of who deliver talbuk seonggong narratives, if resettlement in South Korea that highlight they display an object at all, show one that personal triumph rather than trauma. The shift represents their bigyeol (“secret to success”). represents a rejoinder to many of the critiques For example, one successful woman reveals cited earlier in Oh (2013). These new elements that she has hundreds of bank accounts, the in the show are now presenting a vision of how better to build her savings, and presents her the integration of that community into South many bankbooks as evidence. Korean society might be achieved.

The tale of Kim Su-jin in Episode 46 offers a Conclusion representative example of talbuk seonggong. Kim explains her desire to appear on the show Imangap has yet to escape controversy. Given as she begins to speak: her goal is to convey a heavy-handed government media initiatives sense of resilience and empowerment to her promoting a limited vision of immigrant fellow refugees from the North, giving them integration and South Korean multiculturalism, evidence that even ordinary people like herself active Ministry of Unification support for the can succeed if they try (“hamyeon doelsu production of Imangap and other shows itda”). Nonetheless, she says nothing about her concerning North Korea hardly inspires former life in North Korea or her defection confidence that a balanced portrayal of North process. Rather, she focuses solely on her Korean people, including those who have made arrival in South Korea with very little, and her their way across the border, will result. subsequent step-by-step building of a profitable Moreover, in South Korea’s polarized political convenience store business. She relates how and media climate, shows about North Korea- after she left Hanawon, the state-runrelated topics unavoidably risk distrust. resettlement training center for North Korean Imangap is broadcast under the auspices of the defectors, she received a government-allotted staunchly conservativeDong-A media apartment from the South Korean government, conglomerate, and criticism of the show has as do other refugees, and then worked at her been launched by Hankyoreh, the standard- first job as a gas station attendant for three bearer of the left, for converting North Korean months. During this period she claims that both reality into entertainment (Choe 2012). she and her young daughter felt content. Certainly, the dailyDong-A Ilbo, and its However, a problem arose in that whenever her ideological brethren, theChosun Ilbo and child visited a friend’s home, she would return Joongang Ilbo, are drawn to material about to ask why her home only had a couple of talbukja: tales about refugees suggest not rooms and her family didn’t own a car. merely compassion for a struggling minority, Perturbed that this state of affairs suggested but awareness that details of cruelty and that she was not fulfilling her duties as a hardship in North Korea buttress a historical mother properly, Kim soon persuaded the anti-communism. The ongoing repetition of owner of a small convenience store to let her these details has experienced a noteworthy manage the establishment, and has since gone recrudescence in such everyday practices as on to operate a string of similar stores. television consumption since the demise of the Sunshine Policy. This phenomenon reminds us Although one may quarrel with the message of the functioning of banal examples of that status and wealth, as measured by large collective identity formation (Billig 1995) in

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South Korea that rely upon North Korea as an to developing a discourse of diversity that both Other against which visions of the nation can acknowledges and supports changes in the take shape, even as its demographics evolve. fabric of South Korean society during the second decade of the 21st century. An essential Our analysis of segments from the show difference, however, lies in the ability of partially reinforces concerns about a lack of Imangap to call upon sites of shared cultural balance in representation: Imangap plays up memory as glue for binding North Korean the namnam bungnyeo trope, depicts North migrants more tightly to the host community. Korea alternately as a quaint backwater and a In this sense, the show’s exposition suggests a ruthless dictatorship, and seeks to arouse belief that tales of trauma can push the nation sympathy for the people of North Korea even at toward catharsis in the spirit ofGeu sarami the expense of accuracy. For these reasons, bogo sipda. among others, sometalbukja, including a former panelist interviewed by one of the co- Nonetheless, by insistently returning to points authors, feel that the show ought to leave the of enormous difference in order to make the 1990s and early 2000s in particular where they women’s stories attention-getting and render are: times of great hardship in North Korea, the show compelling, Imangap reminds its but bearing little relation to what occurs today. viewers that a genuine appreciation of the The informant avoids appearing on the show experience of talbukja will remain beyond their now, citing concerns over the image ofgrasp. This strategy intersects with the defectors and the defection process that it namnam bungnyeo trope to, quite literally, fosters. And yet, as the juxtaposition of talbuk engender a hierarchical Othering tajahwa( ) seuteori and talbuk seonggong suggests, it is that emphasizes the yawning gap that remains equally possible for Imangap to give more between North and South and encode it as a balanced, nuanced and non-judgmentaldifference between a strong masculine nation portrayals of North Koreans. The show has seeking to play the role of protector and its proven that it does not inherently require that weak feminine counterpart. The two defectors be portrayed as downtrodden victims, overarching approaches are scarcely the better to emphasize the evils of the North compatible. Korean government. This schizophrenia is not merely a product of In short, Imangap evinces palpably media manipulation, although such schizophrenic attitudes. On one hand, it clearly manipulation is a concern. Rather, it points to wishes to highlight adongjilseong deeper societal quandaries. In the last 15 (homogeneity) of the peoples of the two Koreas. years, South Korea experienced a decade of the In contrast to Misuda, its presentation of its Sunshine Policy, under which previously panelists as intriguingly exotic objects of desire unimaginable depictions of North Korea and can also draw on imaginations (and displays) of North Koreans emerged. More recently, the linguistic, cultural and genetic commonality to country lived out five years of rigidly foster closeness. In similar fashion, the show conservative government, with the prospect of tries to offer a special place for North Korean five more under the current administration. border-crossers in the face of South Korea’s This latter era has seen a return to suspicion of newfound multiculturalism and to suggest that North Korean motivations at the highest levels the common heritage of the past may allow for of South Korean government, and with just a common future should reunificationcause; Pyongyang has frittered away much of eventuate. Like such programs as Love in Asia, the lingering sympathy it retained in South then, Now on My Way to Meet You contributes Korean society through repeated provocations.

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Recent spy films including 2012’sGancheop at the University of Cambridge. He is also the (The Spy) and 2013’s record-breaking Manager of International Affairs for Daily NK, a Eunmilhage, Widaehage (Secretly, Greatly) prominent provider of news about North Korea suggest that although the national imaginary to the international community. He has been continues to wish for the possibility ofstudying and writing about the country for identification with Northerners as individuals, more than 10 years, and recently translated consciousness of the North as threat has made and edited NK People Speak, 2011, a a significant return. translation of in-depth interviews with North Korean citizens (Zeitgeist, 2011). Ultimately, fluctuations in media images of North Koreans have not brought South Korea Recommended citation: Christopher Green and closer to coming to terms with its internal Stephen Epstein, "Now On My Way To Meet social divisions, much less the division with its Who? South Korean Television, North Korean northern neighbor. The inability of Imangap to Refugees, and the Dilemmas of convey a unitary approach toward North Korea Representation," The Asia=Pacific Journal, Vol. is a reflection of not just contestation but 11, Issue 41, No. 2, October 14, 2013. confusion and ambivalence in South Korean society. The Sunshine Policy may have opened References up new vistas for screen representations of North Koreans in South Korea, but it did not Bevan, Jake. (2010). “Welcome to Panmunjeom: answer a more serious question: in the twenty- encounters with the north in contemporary first century, following several decades of South Korean cinema”. New Cinemas 8 (1): historical divergence and with distance45–57. increasing year by year, does South Korea as a Billig, Michael. (1995). Banal Nationalism. whole truly desire reunification with itsLondon: Sage Publications. troubled neighbor, or would it rather relegate it Choe, Seong-jin. (2012). “‘Misuda’ talbuk to the status of another country altogether? minyeo beojeon? useumgeori doen bukhan hyeonsil” [“A Version of Misuda With Northern Associate Professor Stephen J. Epstein is the Refugee Beauties? North Korean Reality Director of the Asian Studies Programme at the Converted into Comedy”]. Hankyoreh, June 22. Victoria University of Wellington and the Choi, Jung-yoon. (2012). “South Korea TV Show current president of the New Zealand Asian Opens a Window on the North”. LA Times, June Studies Society. He has published widely on 10. contemporary Korean society, popular media Draudt, Darcie and Brian Gleason. (2012). and literature and has translated numerous “Beautiful Defectors: An Exploration of South works of Korean and Indonesian fiction. Recent Korea’s ‘Now on my Way to Meet You’”. Sino- full-length publications includeComplicated NK (online), August 3. Currents: Media Flows, Soft Power and East Epstein, Stephen. (2009a). The“ Axis of Asia, a volume co-edited with Alison Tokita and Vaudeville: Images of North Korea in South Daniel Black, which appeared on Monash Korean Pop Culture”. The Asia-Pacific Journal: University Publications in 2010, and novel 10-2-09, March 7. translations The Long Road by Kim In-suk Epstein, Stephen. (2009b). “The Bride(s) From (MerwinAsia, 2010) and Telegram by Putu Hanoi: South Korean Popular Culture, Vietnam Wijaya (Lontar Foundation, 2011). and ‘Asia’ in the New Millennium”. Global Korea Proceedings, Korean Studies Association Christopher K. Green is a Ph.D candidate of Australasia, Sydney. studying North Korean society and economics Green, Christopher and Steven Denney.

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(forthcoming). “Defector Testimonies in a Cheneol-A ga sagwahettdago? Byeonmyeong Polarized Society: From Implausible Story to ilgwan Cheneol-A, bywonmyeongjocha Political Controversy”. Korean Quarterly.Green, eomneun TVjoseon” [“Dong-A Network Christopher and Sokeel Park. (2012). Kim“ Channel-A apologized? Channel-A’s Excuse Jong-eun prepares a balancing act”. Asia Times, Maintains Position, TV Chosun Does Not Even September 22. Jeong, Yeon-gu; Song, Hyeon-ju; Offer Excuse”], OhmyNews Blog, May 22. Yoon, Tae-il and Sim Hun. (2011). “Nyuseu Lim, Timothy. (2009). Who“ is Korean? midieo ui gyeorhon iju yeoseong bodo ga Migration, Immigration, and the Challenge of suyongja ui bujeongjeok gojeong gwannyeon Multiculturalism in Homogeneous Societies”. gwa damunhwa jihyangseong e michineun The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 30-1-09, July 27. yeonghyang. [The Influence of News Media Noce, Julie. (2012). “South Korean TV Show Reports on Female Marriage Migrants on Bridges Gap for Female Defectors”. Reuters, Audience Biases and Multicultural Leanings]”. June 21. Hanguk eollon hakbo. 55(2): 405~427.Jung, Oh, Young Suk. (2013). “Gwangaegeuroseo-ui Ha-won. (2013). “South’s New Heroes? Spies talbukja: talbuk-ui jagipyoseong-gwa yeonghwa from North.” Japan Times, July 23. suyong [North Korean Defectors as Audience: Kim, Ji-yeong. (2012). “Saengsaenghan bukhan Self-Representation of Defection and Film gyeongheomdam jaemi-wa gamdong-iReception]”. Yeonghwa yeongu 55: 291-329. ggeutnaejumneda” [“Interest and Emotion of Ryang, Sonia. (2012). “North Koreans in South Vivid Tales from North Korea Enthralls”]. Korea: In Search of Their Humanity”. The Asia- Weekly Dong-A, May 14. Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 25, No 1, June 18. Kim, Suk-young. (2007). “Crossing the Border Tae, Jiho and Hwang, Inseong. (2012). to the Other Side: Dynamics of Interaction “Tellibijeon tokeushyo (chaeneol A)-ui talbuk between North and South Koreans in Joint yeoseongdeul-ui sajeok jaeguseong bangshik- Security Area and Spy Li Chul-jin”. in Frances gwa geu uimi-e daehayeo [How Does Channel- Gateward, ed., Seoul Searching: Culture and A’s Talk Show Now on My Way to Meet You Identity in Contemporary Korean Cinema Reconstruct North Korean Female Defectors’ (Albany: SUNY Press): 219-242. Personal Memories?]”. Hanguk eollon jeongbo Kim, Sung-kyung. (2013). “I am well-cooked hakbo 60: 104-124. food: The Survival Strategies of North Korean Watson, Iain (2010). “Multiculturalism in South Female Border-crossers and Possibilities for Korea: A Critical Assessment”. Journal of Empowerment”. Unpublished manuscript. Contemporary Asia 40.2: 337-346. Kim, Tong-Hyung. (2011). “Big Bang or big Yoon Tae-il; Kyung-Hee Kim and Han-Jin Eom. bust? Cable TV Channels owned by big(2011). “The border-crossing of habitus: media newspapers on air with great fanfare”. Korea consumption, motives, and reading strategies Times, Dec. 1. among Asian immigrant women in South Kim, Yeran. (2011). “Idol Republic: The Global Korea”. Media, Culture and Society 33(3): Emergence of Girl Industries and the415-431. Commercialization of Girl Bodies”. Journal of Gender Studies 20(4): 333-345. Notes Kwon, Mee-yoo. (2013). How“ Inter-Korean 1 Relationship Shapes N. Korean Movie Spies”. A version of this article was presented at the Korea Times, June 11. ‘Years of Radical Change’ conference held at Lankov, Andrei. (2006). “Bitter Taste ofthe University of London’s School of Oriental Paradise: North Korean Refugees in the South”. and African Studies on May 31 and June 1, Journal of East Asian Studies 6: 105-137. 2013. We would like to thank the audience at Lee, Tae-bong. (2013). “Dong-A jongpyeoneun that venue for helpful remarks. Andray

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Abrahamian, Suzy Kim, and the referees of this airtime to the claim that North Korean journal have also provided us with insightful commandos had entered Gwangju in 1980 to comments. Our research has been supported by incite the 5.18 democratization protests by, a grant from the Royal Marsden Society of New among other things, shooting local civilians. Zealand. South Korea’s Communication Standards Commission forced both to apologize for 2 In this article we use talkbukja in preference inaccurate reporting (Lee 2013). For more, see to saeteomin (“new settlers”) for the sake of Green and Denney (forthcoming). consistency rather than to make a political statement about terminology that is often 7 “Round-table Talks Held with Inhabitants of fraught. Although talbukja is no longer the DPRK upon Their Return Home from South,” officially sanctioned designation, it is the term Rodong Sinmun (online), May 20, 2013. most frequently used in everyday discourse. 8 Conversely, for the sake of variation in English Defection broker Kim Yong-hwa corroborated and to suit context, we have been less strict in the defection story on September 15, 2013. switching between “refugee”, “border-crosser” However, only a Dong-A Ilbo story on the and “defector.” subject has thus far included mention of Imangap; it has not been independently 3As producer Lee Jin-min stated in a June 2012 confirmed. For the original story, see“Buk interview with the Los Angeles Times, “The bowigigwan gowijik ttal talbukhu defectors say that they feel anonymous, like a hangukhaeng” [Daughter of high-level DPRK seed of grain dropped from the sky in a foreign security agency official South Korea-bound place when they first arrive in South Korea. after defection], Dong-A Ilbo, September 16, Hearing the stories from such people makes it 2013. more personal and can call attention to the fact 9 that war and separation is an ongoing issue” “Jeryu oegugin 150-man myeong cheot (Choi 2012). dolpa…damunhwa-dainjonghwa gasok” [Resident foreigner numbers break through 1.5 4 See further the Ministry of Unification’s million for first time… multicultural and website. multiethnic society accelerates], Yonhap News (online), June 10, 2013. 5 The Ministry of Unification’s acknowledgement of Channel-A’s work in 11 Indeed, Channel-A itself has referred to the highlighting defector issues and its intention to show explicitly as talbuk-ui“ minyeodeul-ui support that work underscores the close suda.” See 0:51 of this video, which excerpts relations between the show and the South the network’s programJamgeum Haejae Korean authorities. See Tongilbu,“ tongil- 2020 (Unlock 2020). nambukgwangye gwannyeon eollonindeul-ege 12 gamsa-ui maeumeul jeonhada” [Ministry of Imangap has recently added segments in Unification conveys thanks to media figures which North Korean non-panelist guests appear involved with unification and inter-Korean on the show and seek help in searching for issues], Ministry of Unification press release, family members they have been separated from November 14, 2012. in the process of coming to South Korea, thus rendering the connection to Geu sarami bogo 6 Controversy over the broadcasting standards sipda much more explicit. that Channel-A and TV Chosun apply in 13 reporting on North Korea arose again in May Virtually every episode supports our 2013, when both networks gave extended arguments equally well, but access for most

17 11 | 41 | 2 APJ | JF requires a subscription to Channel-A. We have Are Flowers”), an alleged favorite of Kim Jong- created a YouTube playlist for Episode 45 as un, while in Episode 54 one of the regular well as other segments discussed in this article, panelists offers a note-perfect version which is available here. The clips, it should be of Gaseumui pumeun sarang (“Heart Full of noted, are not subtitled. Love”), the theme song to the 2003 South Korean movie Seontaek (The Road Taken). 14 Shin’s “fan café,” which is shared with her sister Shin Eun-hui, can be found here. 22 Kang, Won-cheol, “Destitute TV Girl Finally Died of Starvation,” Daily NK (online), 15 See Kim, So-yeol, “Potatoes at the End of the December 9, 2012. Earth”, Daily NK (online). April 9, 2012. 23 For this latter clip, see here. Instances can be 16 See here considerably multiplied: Episode 47 introduces a mathematics teacher who, increasingly 17 See here. unable to tolerate the non-meritocratic nature

18 of North Korea society, escaped and went on to See here. establish an ‘alternative school’ in the South for refugee children. Dr. Lee Ae-ran relates in 19 See, e.g., “Seoul’s Defector Girl Boxer Stars Episode 50 how she became the first female in Rare Triumph for Refugees,” an article North Korean refugee to obtain a doctorate published by Bloomberg in June 2013 that from a South Korean university, while in mirrors the usual treatment of refugee success; Episode 54 Kim Yu-seong, father of Kim Jang- domestic South Korean media offer a similar ok, one of the regular participants, explains his approach. successful mushroom export business. 20 Episode 34, e.g., focuses on sports, as the 24 Lee Sun-sil’s defection story is available here. title Bukhan eun seupocheu ui modeun geot (“All about North Korean Sports”)25 Rather differently, the rice cake gift that conveys. See here. accompanies the talbuk seuteori of Choi Geum- sil in Episode 45, conveys the message that 21 These performances also usually involve South Korea is a land of capitalist milk and impressive demonstrations of musical talent on honey, where such items can be had for as little the part of the talbukjaparticipants. Episode 33, as 1,000 won, although in North Korea such for example, includes an excellent accordion things are often unobtainable. rendition of Yeoseongeun kkochirane (“Women