The Marmot’s Hole

Who are these people?

If you answered, “Two people who probably ought to be in prison,” you’d be right. But to be more specific, they are former North Korean chief ideologue Hwang Jang-yop and former South Korean President Kim Young-sam watching the musical “Yodok Story,” which deals with life in North Korea’s Yodok political prison camp. And they weren’t alone. Among those who’ve watched the show are former presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang, former GNP pit bull Chun Yu-ok and, of course, GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye. In fact, here’s Hwang, YS and Park meeting the cast of the musical on Sunday. Warms your heart, doesn’t it?

Actually, some 30 GNP figures have seen the musical since it debuted two weeks ago. And where there’s politicians, there’s politicking. GNP parliamentary floor leader Lee Jae-oh called on President Roh, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok and Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young to see the musical and tell the public what they thought of it. And I guess at this point it goes without saying that Chun Yu-ok had some pointed remarks to make, this time making proper use of her Tatter Tool-powered blog. Quoting the director of the musical, who claimed not one Uri Party lawmaker has showed up for the show despite his having sent invitations to each and every one of them, Chun warned that the Roh Administration, “blind and deaf to Yodok Story,” would definitely be “judged by history.” She said, “How cowardly we are in South Korea… As citizens of a nation that abstained three times during UN votes on North Korean human rights, how can we show our face and live our lives before history… How many of our Northern brothers must die under the Roh administration, which views smooth intra-Korean dialog as sacred and inviolable?”
The GNP ran its own press release on “Yodok Story,” in which Park Geun-hye expressed hope that many young Koreans would see the musical, and that performances could be held overseas to raise awareness of the North Korean human rights issue.
Hwang Jang-yop, meanwhile, was fighting back tears after the show, although it has yet to be determined if he was moved by the story, guilt, or simply nostalgia for the good old days when he and his friends were sending enemies of the people to places like Yodok. He also said, “The North and South were liberated on the same day. But as you have seen, the difference between North and South is like that between Heaven and Earth (and he would know, having been the ideological architect behind one of those extremes). We mustn’t forget our North Korean brothers, and we definitely must reunify our people.”
I’d imagine the musical will eventually play in Japan, the United States and Europe. At any rate, it sure seems to have gotten the attention of the foreign press, with the LA Times, AP, IHT, TIME and NPR (!) all running stories on it. This was no doubt helped by the Chosun Ilbo, which lent what we’ll call an extremely sympathetic ear to “Yodok Story” director Jung Sung-san’s claims that his musical was the victim of pressure from the South Korean government, which he said feared his show would upset Pyongyang. Unlike the Chosun, some of the foreign press accounts linked above–much to their credit–actually gave Seoul the opportunity to deny the allegation. Shockingly enough, the Chosun carried the GNP’s banner by running an editorial today bashing the president, unification minister, Uri Party and other progressive figures for not showing up to see the musical. Park, Chun, the Chosun, YS, et al. are probably correct in their criticism of Roh and his fellow travelers, at least as far as their policies concerning the North are concerned. I simply wish the criticism were being made from sources with slightly more credibility and in a fashion that didn’t smack of partisan politics and come dangerously close to slandering the government internationally.
BTW, “Yodok” organizers say the show is selling out on the weekends and drawing over 70 percent on weekdays.
And to head back for a moment to the politicking, the Seoul Shinmun ran an interview with poet Choi Jin-i, who herself is a North Korean defector who came to the South in 1999. According to Choi, both conservatives and progressives are missing the point about North Korean human rights. She criticized both those indiscriminately calling for Kim Jong-il’s overthrow and those who ignore the North Korean human rights issue all together. She stressed that President Roh should see “Yodok Story” for himself, and advised him to talk with defectors who graduated from North Korea’s political prison system. She said, “Just like how President Roh said he wanted to go to the Yasukuni Shrine to properly lay a finger on Japan’s understanding of history, he must see ‘Yodok Story’ to break through the ideological conflict owing to misunderstandings.
Choi said that excessive ideological confrontation in South Korean society was due to lack of discussion, the venting of grievances and Korea’s online “comment culture.” She said debates aren’t debates, but rather opportunities to express rage at the other side and launch character assassinations, with both sides unable to make breakthroughs as discussions descend into childish wars of emotion.
She also criticized scholars, who she said are elitist and listen to the stories of defectors only within their own pre-built frameworks. She said no one was willing to listen properly to North Korea’s own “386″ generation of intellectuals who went to university in the late 70s and 1980s. She said that when such intellectuals say they like the Kim Jong-il regime, it’s partly out of fear and partly a defense mechanism against chaos. She noted that those who went to school in the 1960s at least got to see international cultural events like the Bolshoi. Those who went to school in later decades, though, were very much cut off from the rest of the world by the government. The “386 generation” is the first North Korean generation to start looking for the truth.
She also noted that thanks to intra-Korean exchanges, the energy of the market economy was making in-roads into the North, leading to major changes.