Have North Korean workers at Kaesong become corrupted?
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il is believed to have become increasingly wary of South Korean influence as filtered through Kaesong.
The 40,000 workers in the complex, have grown accustomed to South Korean “choco-pies,” instant coffee, cakes, and soups that South Korean managers serve with their lunches. Quite often they give them to friends and family members – an “invasion of the stomach,” say South Korean managers, that contributes to the image of South Korea as a rich society in contrast to their own poverty-stricken surroundings.
“Choe Sung-chul’s crime was bribery and corruption,” says Paik Sung-joo, director of the Korean Institute of Defense Analyses. “Now North Korea is afraid the North Korean workers and their families are corrupted.”
Oh, those insidious Choco Pies. They killed Patrice Lumumba and cause global warming, you know.
Before we bemoan the imminent loss of the Kaesong Choco Pie Superhighway, though, much of South Korea’s cultural influence in the North comes not via official inter-Korean projects like Kaesong and Kumgangsan, but via illegal trade across the Sino-Korean border:
According to the South Korean media, North Korean officials blamed Choe for making the North “dependent on South Korea.” But Ha Tae Keung, president of NK Open Radio, which broadcasts news into North Korea from Seoul, places little credence in these accounts.
The influence of South Korean culture and industry comes mainly via China, he notes, through shipments of DVDs, CDs, and other products, much of it in illegal trade across the Yalu and Tumen river borders.
Something to consider. Also worth considering is IF North Korean workers at Kaesong have become “corrupted,” what will the Northern authorities do with them if the complex closes?
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Choco Pie and the Jeju Orange Juice. Best. Combo. Ever.
And after watching JOA I couldn’t eat Choco Pie for a while.
Choco Pies: is there anything they can’t do?
“what will the Northern authorities do with them if the complex closes?”
Don’t know for sure but if past actions of Kim and his crew are anything to go by…..I would assume an all expense paid, one way trip to a northern camp for a select few and their entire families.
I prefer Wagon Wheels.
“IF North Korean workers at Kaesong have become “corrupted,” what will the Northern authorities do with them if the complex closes?”
Are they? I wouldn’t be surprised if production at Kaesong hasn’t halted and its goods are being shipped to China.
If reports about are Choe Sung-chul’s sorry fate are correct (a big if)., I hope I am not responsible for his death… When I came back from my first trip to Kaesong, I used to repeat: “Have I been the Dear General, I would have people responsible for this project executed”. I hope, my thoughts did not reach Kim’s brain through some telepathy…
On more serious note. Yes, in absolute term the influx of information through the border seems to be on grander scale, compared to Kaesong, but Kaesong is located strategically, it is close to Pyongyang. The information is filtering into the capital, and this is important since in the final count riots in the countryside can be easily suppressed.
Right now, it’s time to reject the NK’s current demands about Kaesong, since surrender to blackmail is not advisable. But I still hope that NK leaders, feeling the sweat smell of money, will back up in the last moment – much like their behaviour during last year’s ‘leaflet scandal’. The continuous existence of Kaesong makes Kim’s clique great harm, and this is good.
Dr. Lankov,
Actually, I wouldn’t completely discount the possibility. I am sure you know about these things more, but I vaguely recall Kissinger reminiscing how responsive Mao & his gang were to what they read in the Western press in terms of formulating their policy toward the West, and I doubt it would be any different with a totalitarian leadership that is even more information-deprived as the one in Pyongyang.
Ah, Choco Pies, the snacks I remember from my Korean childhood, which I later found out were just Japanese moon pies.
CJ or movie company in Hollywood like Paramount needs to give Kim Jong Il a contract with full artistic license and $10 million to produce a film or three. That will draw the leadership out of their hole…
Dear Won Joon Choe, It meant to be a joke about ‘mind reading’, telepathy and similar weird things! I do not have such a delusion!
But I sometimes feel a bit careful when I have an urged to describe the ideal policy towards the North as “policy of ‘subversive engagement’”. Seriously, I think they read much, but I do not think they pay any attention to people like me, because I do not belong to any established bureaucratic structure and hence is insignificant. They seem to assume that only officials have influence.
From my experience: in 1991 I arranged a defection of my NK friend, then studying in my native Petersburg, to a third country. The NK embassy discovered my involvement and assumed that I must be a son or a close relative of some Soviet VIP. They were looking for this connection carefully (loosing time and resources, fortunately), but I still did look like a son of a working class single mother. They were perplexed, it did not fit their world view. So, they know a lot about diplomats and politicians dealing with the NK policy (a lot more than they should, since some Americans tend to be a bit too talkative), but they do not care about scribblings in the newspapers unless a particular piece is signed by a former ambassador or somebody like this.
@vince
Don’t you already know about Kim Jong Il’s illustrious film career?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2003/apr/04/artsfeatures1
NK regime is scared of SK’s cultural invasion. NK won’t last. If NK officials are increasingly becoming corrupted than that’s sign of crack in their regime. Korean unification is nearby.
Nearly five years ago, I predicted how this experiment would end. I think what this proves is that North Korea is far more easily transformed by going around the regime and engaging ordinary people than by trying to engage the regime itself. The demise of Kaesong proves conclusively that the regime won’t accept any engagement that transforms.
Link.
Joshua,
That’s how they’ve managed to survive all these years.
But soon or later they have to accept some transformation or just crumble.
how did chocopie kill Patrice Lumumba?
Is Lotte’s Shin family Korean or Japanese?
wjk — Choco Pies didn’t actually kill Patrice Lumumba.
I was being a wiseass.
Someguy, definitely agree Wagon Wheels are better. Right balance of Biscuit, Jam, and Marshmallow – the Choco Pies are nice but just too crumbly.
WJK – Shin was born in Korea, but studied Waseda Uni in Japan and started Lotte in late 1940′s in Japan long before starting the Korean branches.
Little does Dr. Lankov know, but the Norks put an implant in his brain while he was studying at Kim Il Sung U.
#7: Moon Pies are as American as, well, apple pie, invented in Chattanooga in 1917.
I think what this proves is that North Korea is far more easily transformed by going around the regime and engaging ordinary people than by trying to engage the regime itself.
Joshua, BOTH ways should be used. Simultaneously. There is no contradiction. Plus support for opposition groups and education for defectors. In a an ideal world the money which will be “saved” by the collapse of Kaesong (which, I still hope, is not going to happen) should be put in the second l;ine of work – broadcast, support for defectors (esp. educated defectors), and, above all, DIGITAL material. Alas, I am pretty sure that it is not going to happen.
I can make the case that there is a contradiction. My response here.
Per #18, Moon Pies are still manufactured in nearby Collegedale, TN, just outside of Chattanooga.
#11, they are getting pretty desperate up north. They actually had to run a story about Kim Jong Il taking a trip to Mt. Paektu back in 72′ and climbing up the mountain against his advisors warnings of danger in their online news today. I know they print miniscule things about KJI and goat farms alot, but reading the story about him awakening the lake inside the crater when he reached the summit seemed bizzare even by KCNA standards to print for international readers in this day and age. It is almost like the cult religion of the Kim’s is being shaken inside the country right now to the point that they have to preach about his past miracles to foreigners out of desperation. Knowing full well that non Korean people will laugh at this “news” they go ahead and publish it. Or they could be preparing to finally unveil the latest addition to the Kim dynasty by promoting KJI’s superhuman genetic background to enhance the legitemacy of his son in waiting.
Re: 10
Heck yeah, I know about the films of the beloved leader, and the abduction of Korea’s Orson Wells. That’s why I think it could be a promising way to bait him to enter international society in a more constructive manner. If he took that step out, it would be all over for the current regime paradigm.
I would be very interested to see some of the films… especially the one about the giant starfish.
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