NORTH KOREA

Behind the bamboo curtain

52femalestudents Clearing hurdles: Female students of the Pyongyang International Football Academy at a training session. Despite the traditional bias against them, North Korean women are part of most activities in the state | Getty Images

More than poverty, it is the realisation of having been kept in the dark their entire lives that drives most new-age North Koreans

As I was taken from one propaganda site to another in Pyongyang, what struck me most were the things that were missing. Traffic was minimal, and the distinct noise usually attributed to similar-sized cities, was not there. There were no street vendors, not many open stores or cafes on sidewalks. And, the people I met were always busy, either hurrying past on foot or squeezed into old Russian style trams. In fact, all that I could see were the things they wanted me to see: mostly huge anonymous buildings, dotted by the portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.

Such was the image of the North Korean capital back in 2013 when I was allowed to visit for a few days. I, however, never managed to get the complete picture as I was chaperoned by our tour guide during the day and was safely ensconced in the hotel room at night.

54foreigndiplomats Foreign diplomats plant trees next to a high-rise in the city | AP

I have learned that since then the number of cars has increased, although reliable statistics are hard to come by. And just as I was delighted to enjoy a slice of Italian pizza on the last night of my stay, today, there are several restaurants in Pyongyang that offer western delicacies. There are malls that cater to those with just the right party credentials. As North Korean expert Andrei Lankov says, it is a form of capitalism adjacent to a Victorian economy. It is capitalism with no social guarantees. It is merciless and efficient.

The number of markets has doubled. The real estate market is booming. A good apartment in Pyongyang will set you back by at least $1,00,000. If you are looking for something exclusive, be prepared to pay the double of that. All this, in fact, is a tribute to the entrepreneurs who successfully run these enterprises, the bourgeois of the once communist state. While political performance was the key in the past, in the new system, economic performance is rewarded.

Even though Kim Jong-un’s regime claims to be communist, it no longer conforms to the classical definitions of communism. The great famine of the 1990s not only sent hundreds of thousands of innocent North Koreans prematurely into their graves, but it also shook the foundations of the ideological principles that prevented North Korea from developing a market economy. Now, market economy has become the sole route to survival. The great famine, therefore, represents an important turning point in the history of North Korea, reshaping the way of thinking for future generations.

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Some of the young defectors I recently met said they belonged to this new generation, “the generation of the market”. And, they were quite blunt about the fact that it wasn’t poverty that made them flee. “In North Korea, I lived in a big house. In Seoul, I live in a tiny flat,” they would say, underscoring the point that it was an entirely different trade-off that had made them defect from a relatively good life.

The quiet influx of television sets, radios, USB sticks, DVDs and such consumer goods has been a soothing way to keep Pyongyang’s rising middle class content. Making sure that the elite can enjoy certain privileges has always been an effective way of keeping people in line. However, in North Korea, it might have had just the opposite effect.

Young defectors said it was the initial innocent addiction to South Korean soap operas and the habit of secretly tuning in to radio programmes from the South that turned them against the regime. It was the life-changing realisation of having been kept in the dark their entire lives. There were parents who knew they could no longer raise their children with the prospect of them growing up in this anachronistic backyard of the world. “We got a radio only in 1999. We didn’t even know it was 1999 as North Korea is run by its own calendar,” said a defector.

These young defectors were different from the ones I have encountered before. I have interviewed defectors behind closed curtains in the comfort of darkness in some of China’s unremarkable border regions. I have also spent time with defectors in Seoul, seeing how they struggled to adapt to a world which has accelerated at least half a century ahead. As these people contemplated an unknown future in South Korea, there were always the stories of struggle and constant hunger, which was an inseparable, pathological part of them. These were the stereotypical defectors we were familiar with. And these people, nearly two-thirds of them women, would get baffled when I asked them a casual, but inconsiderate question: When you were a kid, what was your dream? I didn’t have any dream, they would answer, and look at me profoundly confused, and I would bite my tongue.

But now, we have a new generation of defectors who shed a different kind of light on North Korea. It is not that the stories of a few privileged kids negate the consistent reports on human rights abuse, the recurring food shortages, the prevalent malnutrition and the occasional devastating floods. But they show that Kim Jong-un is fighting another battle, one that takes place within his own ranks.

And it presents the young dictator, who enjoys basketball and Hollywood movies, a severe dilemma. On the one hand, he needs to ensure that future generations of North Koreans are content. In his speeches, he now mentions the youth frequently. In fact, Kim Jong-un now makes more references to the youth than to his father and grandfather, to whom he owes his position as the supreme leader of North Korea. However, Kim also knows that with economic growth comes the demand for merchandise associated with a higher standard of living. The porous border with China has for years allowed people with just the right money and contacts to buy themselves a cellphone or get their hands on some of the hugely popular South Korean entertainment material. While such indulgences can invite harsh penalties, those responsible for enforcing the rules, too, are often guilty of the same crimes. So they tend to look away, and let the perpetrators get away with a warning.

57pyongyang Rush hour: A busy metro station in Pyongyang | Getty Images

Kim Jong-un is aware of the threat and he is exploring options to defeat this soft infiltration. But nuclear weapons and missile systems are not going to help. So border controls have been tightened. Jammers have been set up to block cellphones that can connect to Chinese networks, there are regular house searches in the border regions, fencing is beefed up and families of the defectors are punished severely. Such measures have ensured that the numbers of defectors have plummeted to just a third of the 2,000-3,000 annually, which was the case earlier.

Kim Jong-un is also using his propaganda apparatus to appeal to his people not to make the “fateful mistake” of defection. In his new year’s address to the nation, Kim Jong-un uncharacteristically mentioned that he felt heavy-hearted thinking of what needed to be done to serve the North Korean people better. He even said he was feeling distressed about his “shortcomings”.

Now it remains to be seen how truthful his sentiments are.

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