American Perspectives: Response to "Making Sense of North Korea" in "Origins of North Korea's 주체"

"North Korea is a country that every American loves to hate.  To the average American 'North Korea' is synonomous with dangerous, undeveloped, and oppressive.  It conjures up all the negative images: massive famine, repressive regime, terrorist attacks, and weapons of mass destruction. 'North Korea was a metaphor for some of the most extreme aspects of the Cold War and is today a metaphor for the most challenging aspects of the new world that has come in its wake,' as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John E. McLaughlin aptly said. It is perhaps the 'metaphor' that Americans rightly love to hate." -서재정 "Origins of North Korea's 주체."

 

I definitely agree that North Korea is the country that every American loves to hate.  Our news media has raised us to believe that it is an undeniable Axis of Evil, and anyone who questions it is suspect.  It is periodically used as an example of "what not to do." Or "This is what will happen to us if we vote yes on such and such law."  There is such a stigma surrounding the discussion of North Korea, but very little credible, empirical information.

 

We (in the US) have been raised to be fearful of countries that refuse to permit the construction of a McDonald's on their soil.  I mean, think about it, the countries the American media has profound hostility towards are countries that don't have heavy handed representation of American business on their soil. Fearful of any major country that does not to some degree embrace capitalism/American values.  After the 1988 Olympics, when I was in the 2nd Grade, I was left believing that China, North Korea, and the USSR were the big scary countries that I needed to be afraid of.

 

I concur that "North Korea...since 1945, has been framed as a problem larger than life: a puppet of the global communist movement that threatens to overturn the capitalist order, a totalitarian regime that threatens to overturn the capitalist order..." (서재정)  As I've gotten into the 한류 wave, I have also gotten into Korean history because I wanted to know what caused such a massive shift on the Korean Penninsula.  I remember in the 1980's also being slightly aware that South Korea had just barely gotten out of an Authoritarian government, so I wanted to know the back story on this pop culture explosion.  Where was all of this coming from?  While studying Korean history, I realized that in order to do it right, I had to accept that North and South Korea were a package deal.  It wasn't a matter of the "Bad Korea" vs. the "Good Korea," it was a matter of an extremely complicated history that goes back thousands of years.  Even though these countries have gone their separate ways, and have grown apart culturally; understanding one means you have to have a working knowledge of the other.  Not "knowledge" that is based on heavily biased sensationalism meant to sell product.

 

It all started with a variety of factors: 1)My passion for the 고려 Dynasty, 2) Similar issues and distrust with the US government as the Indigenous Americans.  We'll start with Point 1.  I will address Point 2 later.  Because I love reading about the 고려 Dynasty the most, I quickly became aware that its political base existed in 개송 which is in present day North Korea.  Because I really don't want to visit the DPRK (I'm not fond of having to follow specific rules with harsh consequences), I chose instead to watch Youtube videos, hoping someone would go to 개송, so I could see it that way.  So, I'm listening to these amateur tourist videos, and professionally made documentaries.  Both have a penchant for being very slanted, as both are going for views and clicks, which generate $$$ for their next adventure/project.  The common theme that stood out to me while listening to these was not proof of evil, but cultural differences and double standards.  With that nugget of opinion, I was no longer content with watching heavily biased videos. Instead, I wanted to go out and do some more reading. And the reading hasn't been easy.  Often times, it has been draining, as I will notice not only heavy handed political bias, but both overt and covert racism.  And I will take my pen, and note it in the margin of the book.  So, words cannot express enough how grateful I was to come across "Origins of North Korea's 주체."  I wanted material that could discuss the DPRK without racism, bias, fear, and disdain.

 

I especially appreciated Chapter 1: "Making Sense of North Korea" as it was exactly what I was looking for.  There is actually much more depth to this chapter, and in order to do it justice, I think I might need to turn this into a multi-part response.  There is a lot of really insightful information in this chapter alone.