(By guest blogger, Andy Jackson)
One of the more insidious aspects of socialism is how it removes incentives for doing work properly. North Korea is no exception (though one could argue that North Korea is more of a Confucian Mafia Monarchy than socialist). So the South Koreans at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex have set up a job training program (from the Moonie rag):
South Korea plans to open a job training center in the North to improve the skills of North Koreans who work in South Korean-owned companies.
The training center, to open in June, each year will offer training in 13 areas of work to 4,000 employees of midsized companies, the state-funded Human Resources Development Service of Korea said in a statement.
“The center will conduct job training and supply a quality workforce to our companies which will move in the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” it said.
Who will pay for this training? Who do you think?
South Korea’s government has allocated $16.4 million to construct the training center in the industrial zone, The Korea Herald reported Thursday.
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12 Comments
that’s rich.
Do they really teach NKs about work ethics? Or, are they just fronts to pump cash into NK? I suspect the latter.
North Korean zeal and work ethic combined with South Korean technology and capitalist know-how shall be a formidable force.
North Korean work ethic? Care to provide some examples?
Ah … this interesting … south koreans teaching north koreans about the work ethic … hmmmmm is this a case of the blind leading the blind ?
Yeah, I bet norks suck at sitting at their desks doing nothing all day and then complaining about the long hours they work.
This is incredible, considering the gross lack of management skills in the SK marketplace right now.
I would rather see a concerted effort on the part of the SK Government to improve the management skills of SK management first rather than teaching their northern kindred the sublties of IM chatting on the job or setting up a phony firm so as to avoid going to jail when contractors go unpaid.
Ha ha… Sure thing, these jibes practically write themselves.
But given the fact that the slave labor in Kaesong is going to be employed at South Korean firms, it seems only fair to tell the slaves what’s expected of them. Failure has dire consequences.
‘an example of the blind leading the blind…’
no, an example of the blind leading the blind would be if we had an alcoholic expat trying to teach north koreans about the value of work.
ha ha
ps gerry, your silence regarding dr lankov’s post says volumes. please remember the thread so the next time i remind you of it you won’t try to create smoke screens by asking where it is. k?
‘anybody against withdrawel from iraq does not support the troops!’ roared the he man
‘70% of troops want out of iraq…’ survey
‘…………’ the same he man as he prowls the streets of hongik for the fresh and underaged
Will one of the classes be Shoe Beating 101? That was a preferred method of Korean managers to motivate the Latino workers in L.A. sweatshops….
nulji,
thanks for the advice on hongik. sounds like a perfect match. fresh, young and open-minded meets experienced, secure and open-minded.
pawikirogi,
I don’t mind the rest of your post but references to flawed polls make my skin crawl since they make polling look unscientific. The Zogby poll you refereed to was flawed in both question form (see the famous "withdraw" question here) and respondent selection. It was basically little more than a convenience sample.