[Jane Hannon]

Like Kimberly, I found the Lankov chapter to be a most useful resource in solidifying my understanding of North Korea; I actually purchased the entire book in Kindle format. It lays things out in a very linear way and provides concrete, vivid details and thorough explanations that will prepare me to answer the types of questions my students asked. My greatest surprise from this reading and this session is that it is possible to know as much as we (or think we do) about North Korea when access to the society is so limited. I was really interested in the accounts of how people in North Korea import South Korean and Western popular culture through China using thumb drives.

[Jane Hannon]

Kimberly, I have used a New York Times piece by photographer David Guttenfelder with my students. While the piece is getting old (2015) he traveled to North Korea repeatedly and my students are engaged by the vivid images, which really capture the humanity of the people. The fact that it is brief relative to a film or documentary is actually an asset since we are always so pressed for time. I believe it is called "Iliminating North Korea."

[Jane Hannon]

It seems that one of the first things about that come to many outsider's minds about North Korea are prison camps. During my years in the classroom the imprisonment of Euna Lee and Laura Ling and then the death of Otto Warmbier have been widely publicized in the American media. So Demick's observation that North Koreans have numerous words for "prison" with different nuances and connations, and the account of Hyuck's treatment, resonated with what I thought I knew.

Similarly, Time magazine's article on the pop group Moranbong also incorporated many recurring themes in the American media's portrayal of North Korea: the emphasis on the military, as seen by the costumes and the performers' own roles in the North Korean military, the incorporation of some aspects of Western pop culture embraced by Korean elites, such as Disney, the patriotic songs paying tribute to the Great Leader, and even the rumors about the possible execution of the lead singer all echo ideas about North Korea that many Americans already possess. I did not found a lot in the readings for this session that really challenged what I thought I knew about North Korea.

[Jane Hannon]

Though not written by an outsider, but rather a defector from North Korea, "The Girl With Seven Names" actually encapsulates many of impressions of life in North Korea that I have formed from the American news media.  This chapter depicts children in the iconic red scarves learning to march and "to subordinate their will to that of the collective" by participating in mass games to commemorate national holidays. In school, the protagonist learns that Kim Sung Il is the most accomplished military leader of all time and encounters negative portrayals of South Koreans, Americans, and even the Chinese. I found this reading to be accessible and compelling, and I think it would work well in a high school classroom.

[Jane Hannon]

That's interesting about the proxies. Nice to be in class with you again, Laura!

[Jane Hannon]

Tom and Laura, I too found a lot to ponder in the analysis of the popularity of cosmetic surgery among young people in South Korea. I have no idea exactly how widespread this practice is in the United States, but my sense is that is far from unusual, though likely more common among older people than younger ones. But beyond that key difference, the motivations for pursuing it did not strike me as that different.  South Korean employers may be more forthright than American ones in asking for photographs with employment applications, but yet in the U.S., we have seen again and again that physical appearance plays a large role in determining an individuals' employment and romantic prospects as well as how strangers perceive their character and interact with them on a daily basis. So while the article demonstrated that a focus on physical appearance is important in South Korean culture, this might actually be one of the less distinctive aspects of South Korean culture. I found the speculation as to whether this was a result of Westernization, patriarachy, and nationalism or a reaction against these forces interesting, but at the same time I doubt these abstract considerations go through individuals minds as much as more immediate professional and social considerations.

[Jane Hannon]

Gibson's article on the ways that Covid-19 has exacerbated the challenges faced by the elderly in South Korea contained some information that surprised me. Knowing that South Korea is a prosperous country with Confucian traditions, I was surprised by the statistic that 43%  of the elderly lived in poverty. According to the article, elderly people who can't afford air conditioning had been accustomed to congregate in public places to keep cool, but the pandemic made that impossible. Furthermore, it shut down jobs they depended on for income and the increased use of digital technologies to minimize person-to-person threatens to leave the elderly even further behind. I had not realized that South Korean society was stratified by age in this way.

[Jane Hannon]

Many of the articles dealt in some way or another with evolving gender roles and gender norms. Together, the articles depicted South Korea as a society that has traditionally been patriarchal, but is undergoing change. Victoria Kim detailed how the #MeToo movement has pushed back against the sexual harrassment of students in schools and Kasulis and McCurry chronicled how scandals such as the Nth Room and spycams have generated widespread outrage. Consequently, serious legal consequences have started to be meted out for these types of offenses.  According to Kuhn, the "escape the corset" movement has arisen as young women push back against social pressure to conform to predetermined standards of feminine beauty. At the same time, according to Surcouf, the "flower boy" persona pioneered by K-Pop bands like BTS has carved out space for young men to assume styles and personality traits traditionally branded as feminine. Although women often experience pressure to leave the workforce to care for children, Stangarone suggests that as fertility rates continue to decline, women's workforce participation may become essential to sustaining economic growth.

[Jane Hannon]

Tom, I agree with your observation that part of what is so concerning about the situation with North Korea is that it is really unclear what Kim Jung Un's end game is, or at least what he reasonably hopes to achieve in the short term. Unlike during the Cold War, when the various ideologies and strategies of both sides were articulated and more or less broadly known, it is really unclear what the broad approaches  of both sides are here. To some extent, does seem to come down to the personalities and immediate  foreign policy and domestic priorities of the world leaders who happen to be in power at that time.  That does a lot to increase uncertainty and  enable  miscalculations to occur.

[Jane Hannon]

Perhaps the most signficant way Kim Jong Un has forged his own path was by tolerating an increased amount of "gray market" private sector (jangmadang) activity, as mentioned in Baek. This relieves the state of the burden of providing for all of the economic needs of the people and probably reduces the risk of another severe famine. Kim Jong Un seems to want more legitimacy in the diplomatic sphere, as seen by the willingness to engage in talks with South Korea in 2016 and the U.S.  in 2018. These talks were ultimately unsuccessful, though. Based on my reading of Sanger and Wong, it seems that Kim Jong Un would like to see sanctions lifted and the U.S. withdraw its troops from South Korea, but he is not willing to end his nuclear program to achieve this. In 2018, he may have been hoping that he could gain an advantageous deal from the U.S. (giving up just a few aged nuclear facilities in exchange for sanctions relief.) Sanger and Wong seem to have been suggesting that Kim was gambling that the U.S.  president would be so eager for a foreign policy victory to distract from domestic political troubles that he would offer generous terms. If this was Kim's approach, it was unsuccesssful. It remains to be seen where he will go from here.

[Jane Hannon]

Based on Noack & Lee's article, it seems that it will be extremely challenging, if not impossible, to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula through dipomacy. One challenge, as Noack and Lee's account of the events surrounding the  2016 "Panmunjom Declaration" demonstrated, is that Kim Jong Un is unpredictable and his end game is unclear. Immediately upon greeting President Moon, he pressured him to step into North Korea. While the formal statement released was positive and optimistic, Noack & Lee pointed out that the meeting was not broadcast live in North Korea and may not have been accurately reported there, raising questions about whether he was sincere in his pledges. Hill argues for the importance of multi-lateralism, but as tensions have increased between the United States and China since Hill wrote, this will be even more challenging to achieve. Hill is dismissive about the potential efforts to achieve normalization, noting that "one is essentially negotiating with oneself." Even sanctions on oil don't appear to have succeeded in slowing the development of nuclear weapons in North Korea.

[Jane Hannon]

Based my reading of Baek, I think the U.S. and its allies need to be pretty vigilant with regard to North Korea, at least in the short-term, because  according to the article, while the attitudes of young people are changing and technology is increasing their knowledge of the outside world, regime change does not appear to be imminent. Baek points out that the younger generation has grown up more accustomed to gaining what they need through private gray markets "jangmadang." This may ultimately reduce their loyalty and gratitude to the state, setting them apart from their parents and grandparents, but this process is likely to take many years. For now, the state is still successfully pervading the lives of ordinary people with propaganda to encourage loyalty to North Korea's leaders, using tactics such as a state radio that broadcasts all day and cannot be turned off and the naming of a school after a girl who sacrificed her lift to save portraits of the leaders. Right now it seems that South Korean and other foreign popular culture holds a strong attraction for young people, but it does not appear to be inspring the kind of activism that could destabilize the regime. North Koreans lack internet access, the government possesses nuclear weapons, and sanctions have not proved effective in reducing the regime's commitment to a nuclear build-up.

[Jane Hannon]

According to Lankov, the strategy of government looking the other way and unofficially (or even accepting bribes) to allow people to create wealth and incentivize private sector farming and creation of goods that are needed and in demand help to sustain North Korea economically after aid from China and the Soviet Union was withdrawn. Interestingly, according to Lankov,  women were readily able to start businesses because they were not required to hold state jobs in the way men were. Sometimes people continued to hold their official state jobs but paid "fines" out of their wages for being absent or missing required meeting while they ran their own businesses. Sometimes they even used raw materials stolen in conjunction with corrupt officials. According to Lankov, a significant percentage of the goods needed to sustain life actually originated on these black markets and black markets are not as "underground" as people imagine.

[Jane Hannon]

Propanda was crucial to enabling the survival of the regime after the end of the Cold War, which also led to the end of extensive financial and military support from the Soviet Union and China. As seen in the lecture, giant statues of both Kim Il Song and Kim Jong Il helped to establish Kim Jong Il's status as a worthy successor to his father. Images displayed in homes  and attending rallies were also important, as is Rodong Shinmun, the official newspaper of the Korean Workers Party. Because North Koreans were and are so accustomed to government propaganda, according to Lankov, they don't necessarily regard portrayals of prosperity in such South Korean media as they are able to illegal or unofficially access, as reliable or accurate.

[Jane Hannon]

It seems that South Korea's Sunshine Policy temporarily had the effect of enabling South Korea to bring North Korea to the table of major world nations to work toward improved relations--as evidenced by the visit of Madeleine Albright and the almost-visit of Bill Clinton--as well as to receive humanitarian assitance from the U.S. and other countries and to work toward nuclear non-proliferation on the Korean Peninsula. This policy enabled  economic cooperation between the North and the South in the form of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, but this doesn't seem to have established lasting trust between the North and the South since concerns remained about whether North Korean workers were actually receiving the wages they were supposed to be paid. It enabled the Six Party Talks to occur, although this does not seem to have resulted in lasting progress. 

I guess one question I have is whether there was any kind of long-lasting positive legacy from South Korea's Sunshine Policy. It was presumably abandoned because those in power in South Korea thought the costs outweighed the benefit, but was this perception widespread among the South Korean people?

[Author]

Posts