NorthKorea

Art / Creativity / Education / NorthKorea

More on North Korea’s art

From my notes while I was there in April: North Korean performance art: technical perfection while appearing effortless ... emote wonder and hokey joy ... layer it on ... add difficulty. Zero subtlety. That just about describes it. I also noted the following. Something tells me that the technical perfection in North Korean arts reflects middling ability in its leadership to prove its self-worth. Maybe I extrapolated too far, but someone is driving their artistic and athletic direction. Since North Korea controls personal expression so much, they can't motivate their artists to express themselves how they want, so how can they promote something like art? They can promote easily quantifiable and measurable results. North Koreans can justifiably say they're better than nearly anyone else on…

August 7, 2012

North Korean children’s nearly unbelievable performances

Art / Creativity / Education / NorthKorea

North Korean children’s nearly unbelievable performances

The pictures below don't even approach showing the almost unbelievable performance ability of North Korean children. Joseph's pictures showcase their talent better. But no images can show the professionalism, dedication, and raw talent these kids have. The pictures below are from the Children's Palace, which trains children to perform and create art and puts on incredible performances. After their performance last time, my travel groupmate who was starting a school to train opera singers, reacted with disgust at the performance. As I understood, he saw their type of performance -- technical perfection that could only result from repeated drilling and repetition devoid of personal expression -- as destroying everything he valued about art -- personal expression and emotional exploration. He saw children whose artistic world…

August 4, 2012

An interesting character in North Korea

An interesting character in North Korea

I don't have any story behind the guy in the picture below. We were at the cemetery for North Korea's martyrs on the anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth, which was like being at Arlington on July 4th. As you can see behind him, columns and columns of soldiers paid respect from before we arrived until after we left. As for him, I couldn't tell if he held authority or if he would have been seen as dressed respectfully or what there. I thought he looked sharp and couldn't resist taking his picture. Click on the picture for a larger version or email me for a higher resolution version.

August 3, 2012

Genuine North Korean emotion and tears

Genuine North Korean emotion and tears

Non-North Koreans had a field day with the videos of people crying they saw after Kim Jong-Il's death last year. People saw it as over-the-top and probably forced at the pain of punishment. I wrote on that crying before. On this trip, on April 15 -- the hundredth anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth -- we got to visit the newly unveiled colossal statue of Kim Jong-Il next to his father's colossal statue. The pictures below are just after we -- the whole group, but Jordan, Joseph, and me pictured -- visited the statues behind us up close (no cameras were allowed much closer than we were). You can see behind us hundreds of North Koreans approaching the feet of the statues. In the time…

August 2, 2012

Pyongyang’s slums

A detour brought us to something few non-North Koreans, and probably few North Koreans, get to see -- the other side of the tracks in Pyongang. April 15 was the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth, something like July 4, 1776 in the United States. Amid the hubbub, they detoured our bus from whatever our route was supposed to be to a driving along some dilapidated and run-down places. The government so heavily controls what anyone sees, especially foreigners, this must have been an accident of the once-in-a-lifetime chaos of the day. I would call the area a slum, but it was nothing like slums elsewhere, like in American cities. Things were old and decrepit but empty. I had no sense…

August 1, 2012

How I could be wrong about North Korea’s stability

My book on North Korean strategy concludes that North Korea's government is stable because everyone who could influence it is motivated to maintain its stability and that those who would benefit from changing it have no influence. I tried to look for holes in my theory. I thought of a few. South Korea continues to become increasingly prosperous. Combined with a more porous border, more information reaches North Korean people, undermining the party line. Cell phones allow greater communication among North Koreans, allowing some assembly. Signals from China and South Korea reach within North Korea. The internet is growing within the country from the inside. Tourism seems to be increasing, increasing communication and dependency on the outside world. I don't claim these are insightful or…

July 26, 2012

Bizarre tour of the metro museum

We toured a museum of the subway system there. Here are the brief notes I took: Room after room of staged photo after staged photo of Kim Il Sung smiling, giving no information on engineering or planning or contribution from anyone but him... where he sat, when he visited, but no details on what he said. Nothing about what we would call the project. That museum was just like most other ones. Just presentation about the Kims sticking their faces into otherwise serious work. I know what people outside the system think of it. It values an authoritarian leader and the system supporting him over everything else. What do people there think of it?

July 25, 2012

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 2: beaches

Nature / NorthKorea

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 2: beaches

Who would expect beautiful beaches in North Korea? Visiting that far north in April, we didn't find warm sunny beaches, but the Earth is beautiful and it's hard to hide that. Some of the beachfront hotels looks nice, almost Mediterranean, from afar. Up close you saw the hotels couldn't have been seriously maintained in decades. One hotel had zero hot water. We had to heat water by dropping a heating element into a tub. Anyway, I hope the pictures convey some of the natural beauty we saw there.

July 24, 2012

Leadership / NorthKorea

What do you think of “leaders” whose people suffered

It's hard not to think little or disparagingly of "leaders" who ruled and gained position not through merit but by accident of birth or through having little confidence (I read Russia installed Kim Il Sung over others more competent). Through no malevolence, you wish they could have known or even experienced some of the suffering they contributed to, even if they didn't intentionally create it, let alone if they intentionally create it. It makes you wonder what they thought of what they did. Did they realize the effects of their actions? Did the system shield them from learning? Were they crazy? Did they like what happened? Is it possible they could have done nothing else? Could I misunderstand? These are my thoughts when I find…

July 23, 2012

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 1: mountains

Nature / NorthKorea

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 1: mountains

I doubt many people would expect to see much natural beauty in North Korea. I was surprised to see a lot once we got out of Pyongyang. You could only call most of the land stark. Little of it was arable. I don't claim to be an experienced photographer -- see Joseph's blog for that quality of picture -- but I saw some great stuff. My pictures don't do the land justice. The lag in my camera combined with always being in the bus meant I consistently took pictures of something a second away from something beautiful. Anyway, click on the images for larger versions and contact me for higher resolutions. …

July 22, 2012

Random observations of Pyongyang and North Korea

Pyongyang could become beautiful I think when the city opens up it has the potential to become very beautiful. So much of it is held back from lack of maintenance. But it also has grand open spaces. If advertisers and developers don't get to it first, they could be made beautiful and accessible to the public. Department store oddness Our tour took us to a department store, or at least something that looked vaguely like one if you didn't look too hard. I couldn't tell who managed it or how, but they didn't get it right. The stocked the shelves with products, but nobody working there did what people in stores are supposed to do, as far as I could tell. Many employees just walked…

July 21, 2012

My first tilt-shift: North Korea

Art / NorthKorea

My first tilt-shift: North Korea

Okay, this post has almost nothing to do with North Korea, but I learned how to do the trick to make images look like miniatures, called tilt-shifting or miniature faking. I did it with an image of Pyongyang from the Juche Tower. The top, though low resolution, shows the original. The bottom shows the retouched version. Click for larger versions. Anyway, it's just for fun and practice. I think the trick has been played out on the web, but I wanted to try. You can see more of Pyongyang too -- unoccupied and unmaintained buildings, Soviet style, public spaces that could be beautiful. Many buildings had pastel colors that reminded me of Miami Beach, but I don't think so many had such pretty colors in…

July 20, 2012

Pyongyang city planning

Pyongyang city planning

Before visiting Pyongyang, you might expect a dismal, dreary place. Below I'll show some views that met my expectations (click for bigger views, email if you want higher resolution) The city also has many monuments and sites -- monuments, stadiums, statues, victory arches, grand libraries, grand boulevards, etc. I'm not sure, but I suspect whoever is leading the planners envisioned creating a Paris of the East. They had a lot of money during the cold war, much more than South Korea at the time. Combined with a powerful central authority, they could do a lot. Today everything comes out different than they must have planned. You can't go anywhere on your own so you lose sense of place. The grandness of the boulevards highlights the…

July 19, 2012

North Korea and deteriorated infrastructure

Pyongyang has a huge, remarkable ten-lane highway. I forget its name, but it's called something like the Children's Highway. I never asked, but I think they said children helped build the road, a claim of dubious value, if I remembered it right. When I get out from China's bizarre firewall I'll post video of the road, but you've never seen anything like it. It deteriorated nearly to where you can't call it a road. You can't drive it at over a few miles per hour in some spots that have become pure pothole across all ten lanes. It's like driving on the moon. As best I can tell they laid a surface layer of road over bare ground with no foundation that a few summers'…

July 18, 2012

North Korea and industry

North Korea's propaganda focuses a lot on industry -- from the posters of mining, energy, factories, etc to what they show off to tourists. They showed us giant factories, barrages (I had to look it up too), train and subway museums, and stuff like that. The U.S. hides industry. What do we stick in your face? What can you not miss in America? Ads. Stores. We motivate personal consumption. And for all their posters of the Kims we stick ads in your face a lot more than they do. The U.S. would never show off a factory, to the extent we still have them. That makes sense in many ways. Factories don't benefit people. The stuff they make does. I think the government there shows…

July 17, 2012

North Korea and inequity

Inequity and its consequences If some people succeed without having to work and others have no chance to succeed, you create feelings of unfairness. Those feelings of unfairness will motivate people to return the unfairness at those who create, maintain, or benefit from the system. Everyone recognizes this situation in North Korea. Even outsiders, who have no interaction with the system, feel outraged and wish harm on the people in charge. People feel the type of wish to harm them normally reserved for ticks, leeches, and genuine parasites. We see the North Korean people not revolting and conclude the regime must be repressing them more. The reason I mention inequity, as usual with me and observations of North Korea, is what it reveals about my…

July 16, 2012

In North Korea, many people just sit by the roadside with nothing to do

In North Korea, many people just sit by the roadside with nothing to do

Many times daily in North Korea you see someone crouching doing nothing but passing time. Usually they're alone, but sometimes in a group. I kept meaning to take pictures, but it feels funny to take a picture of someone doing nothing. I found the two below on the web. As best you can tell they've been squatting all day and will be for a while longer. They'll be in a park or on a street corner. Not far away someone else may crouch alone doing nothing too. I don't see them complaining. I didn't see any police telling them to move along or other people asking them to join an activity. It got me thinking about government, systems, and motivation. I don't know the cause…

July 15, 2012

More North Korea posts to come

I've been meaning to write more about my April 2012 North Korea trip. I took tons of video, pictures, and notes there, but have been trapped behind China's censoring of YouTube and I wanted to start by showing video. Well, you'll have to wait to see the video, but I'll start posting some text and pictures. I'm writing this post partly to sink my ships and force myself to write these posts. Meanwhile, if you want amazing pictures, make sure to check out Joseph's American in North Korea blog. You'll never think of North Korea the same again. You may even want to visit.

July 12, 2012

Blog / Freedom / NorthKorea

Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July

As I consider the U.S. Declaration of Independence perhaps the founding concepts of the country I was born in and lived most of my life, I celebrate our Independence Day by reading at least one relevant historical work. Having visited Vietnam and North Korea since last July 4th, I've had pause to think about what freedom means to America and some things of what America is doing to freedom. Vietnam's War Remembrance Museum certainly affected my perception of how the U.S. has affected freedom in other places. To say the least, the Vietnamese government views the United States' activity there differently than does American culture. On the other hand, learning about and observing the North Korean government's oppressing its people -- which I distinguish completely…

July 4, 2012

Blog / Fitness / Nature / NorthKorea

Ultimate in Shanghai!

I played ultimate in Shanghai for the first time Monday and Saturday since the tournament in August in North Korea (in particular getting the end zone D and catching the goal to win the game), which was the first time in something like five years. Wow, nothing compares to playing ultimate. Even with probably 90 degree temperatures and high humidity, running around, throwing, and catching was awesome. It's like what our bodies evolved for. At 40, I thought I was done playing, but I think I'll play regularly this summer. They have games scheduled twice a week and the community, as with ultimate communities everywhere, is fun, welcoming, international, and spirited. Come to think of it, I saw a random guy in Singapore dressed like…

July 3, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea / Tips

Spending less improves your life

Preface: I started writing this blog about how cutting personal costs (of any resource, including time, money, energy, attention, etc) improves your personal life. Rereading it I realized it overlapped so much with what leaders can do in business, I'll tag it leadership too. Translating the post into business-speak I'll leave as an exercise to the reader. You can probably do it on the fly. People who know me in person know I work very little at a job -- like a day a week, sometimes more in crunch times, which happen once a year or so. When they hear I work so little, they first ask, usually indirectly, where I make enough money to live on. I view going this direction first as a…

June 30, 2012

Explaining China’s support for North Korea

I've had trouble explaining China's fortitude in supporting North Korea. A recent article by the former U.S. Ambassador to China, J. Stapleton Roy, explained it for me. His article also stressed that people and nations are behaving rationally in the region, however self-contradictory and irrational they may seem to those who don't understand their perspectives and motivations. I figured China supported North Korea in the Korean War mainly to keep a buffer between it and the United States military in South Korea. That perspective was on the right track, but just scratched the surface. Three devastating wars and invasions began from the Korean peninsula in modern times. As Mr. Roy states, The Korean Peninsula has posed a massive security problem for China for well over…

June 25, 2012

A Korean-American friend’s article about visiting North Korea

A friend who contacted me about my visiting North Korea wrote an article about visiting North Korea. He traveled extensively, spoke Korean, and ate meat, so he had a chance to experience something different and communicate more. It's hard for me not to notice how experiencing North Korea differed from his expectations, which led him to understand more about his culture -- mainly the press (perhaps the government). Also that the North Korean people made the difference. Besides his article, the comments showed what I would call short-sightedness and ignorance in people's knee-jerk responses. They criticized his visiting without considering the pros and cons of people visiting. I've written on the ethics of visiting North Korea so you can find out I find value in…

June 7, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

A leadership perspective on differences between economic systems

Watching people on the streets of North Korea, you see a different culture than in New York City.Â In three cumulative weeks in North Korea I saw almost no one hurrying or seeming like they wanted to get somewhere important. I was curious if I could find a root cause. From a leadership perspective -- that is, for someone who wants to motivate and lead others -- how do capitalism and communism differ? When you create your teams and organizations, you create systems that affect everyone in the team, whether you realize it or not. How do you motivate people? Will you have people hurrying to do something or free riding? Your choices may differ less than communism and capitalism, but a greater difference makes this…

May 23, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

Robert McNamara on Vietnam and leadership (or lack thereof) that led to the war

Following up on Vietnam, leadership, and the War Remembrance Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, I wanted to include some quotes by Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam war. As the BBC's obituary noted, To anti-war protesters at the time, McNamara became something of a hate figure, an arrogant ultra-hawk responsible for escalating the war. He fully supported, Johnson's decision to put ground troops into Vietnam in a bid to prop up the unstable South Vietnamese government and prevent political disintegration which would have aided the Communist cause... By 1966, McNamara had begun to question the wisdom of US involvement in Vietnam and, a year later, was privately advising Johnson to end the war by negotiation. He initiated a full investigation of…

May 22, 2012

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