NorthKorea

Ho Chi Minh City’s War Remembrance Museum

Blog / Freedom / NorthKorea

Ho Chi Minh City’s War Remembrance Museum

Within its borders, especially during an election year, the U.S. has an overwhelming voice of "we're number one." Outside its borders, I feel like within my lifetime the world's perception of the country has declined significantly. You feel that loss poignantly in a country like Vietnam, which can claim having defeated the U.S. against overwhelming force. Effective leadership, I believe, has to understand other voices, even those it disagrees with. The War Remembrance Museum in Ho Chi Minh City lets you see the U.S. from a perspective you won't see in the U.S. The museum portrays the U.S. as a militaristic, bullying, violent, imperialistic aggressor that supported an unpopular, repressive, oppressive violent puppet regime and lost. How much of that characterization you agree with or…

May 19, 2012

Leadership and the environment

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

Leadership and the environment

The number one defining property of leaders Defining property number one about leaders from leadership guru Michael Feiner (and my professor) is leaders ship. They get the job done. Nobody I know of whose paycheck doesn't originate with fossil fuels or fundamentalist religion believes we are heading in a healthy direction for our environment. But we all respond to incentives and the incentives of our system -- huge roads, low density suburbs, huge subsidies for fossil fuels, no costs to pollute, etc -- promote pollution, producing CO2, and so on. Governments write and enforce the laws forming most of these systems. As long as governments aren't changing the systems to reflect what people want, they aren't leading. As long as the media is reporting controversy…

May 18, 2012

Founding myths and who created North Korea

My recent trip revealed a distinction about North Korea I now believe likely drives its decision-makers' behavior. I consider the following important enough to incorporate into my book. Founding Myths Every country has its founding myths and stories. They help define its values and culture, motivating people's behavior, relationships with each other, and relationships abroad. Who divided the Koreas and how -- founding North Korea in the process -- explains a lot of North Korea's self-aggrandizing and fierce independence. The U.S. has its first President and winning General who could not tell a lie, its Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and its many brave and patriotic founders, for example. We take pride in the independence these stories and myths reinforce. We also born of slavery…

May 16, 2012

I don’t know when the United States and North Korean governments will be at peace, but we made it sooner

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

I don’t know when the United States and North Korean governments will be at peace, but we made it sooner

We visited North Korea for ten days in April, in part for the hundredth anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. North Korea is amazing. This trip surpassed our first in many ways, as before in ways we could never have predicted and, having experienced it, can't explain, much as we'd like to. Everyone on the trip agreed, as happened with the first trip. You had to be there to feel it, but we'll do our best to convey what we experienced, because at the root we communicated, shared experiences, increased understanding, and all the things that create peaceful interaction in all directions. (My travel-mates already started writing and posting pictures, mainly Joseph and Jordan.) Most people in my group explained that seeing and experiencing the…

May 14, 2012

Blog / Freedom / NorthKorea

North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cuba — a case for humility and understanding

The major "Communist" countries my country invaded or fought during the Cold War without doing so well -- I just visited (or smoked a cigar from). It gives you the opportunity to learn. The dominant voices in the United States, especially during an election year, cheer that we're number one. You hardly hear anything else. I can't imaging a politician disagreeing in the slightest having a hope of election. Seeing how others perceive us is enlightening and humbling. Each has a major claim to victory over the United States despite overwhelming odds. China: An elderly Texan oil man in Beijing -- a man in any other context I would expect to praise God, country, and the great state of Texas -- bluntly told me he's…

May 4, 2012

Blog / Nature / NorthKorea

Food, joy, and values

A culture's food tells you its values -- some of its most important ones. I just had fresh squeezed mango and some mangosteens on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. They cost almost nothing here. They were as delicious as any fruit I've eaten. Two weeks ago I could barely put another oil soaked vegetable in my mouth in North Korea. We had little choice in where or what to eat. The meat-eaters seemed to enjoy their food more -- they gave them more variety -- but they couldn't seem to stop serving what I came to call "Oil soup with a touch of vegetables." It wasn't as bad as that, but after eight or nine days without respite, just the smell of oil…

May 1, 2012

Blog / Leadership / NorthKorea

See my North Korea strategy talk

Sebastian posted the video of my North Korea strategy talk to his strategy group of entrepreneurs in Beijing. Check it out. The video didn't capture the questions and answers afterward. One of the first questions people asked was if I worried I was overly sympathetic to North Korean decision-makers. My goal is to understand them and their perspective, which people sometimes interpret as support. It bears repeating that understanding doesn't mean support. If you want to influence someone -- what else do we strategize about? -- I consider ignorance of their perspective the least productive starting point. Once you understand that understanding doesn't mean support, you begin to learn about them. Then you can influence them. Come to think of it, a less productive starting…

April 28, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

Back from North Korea!

Greetings from Beijing and another amazing North Korea trip! This time we visited places few (no?) Americans or non-North Koreans have visited in decades. We also saw the incredible beauty of the country outside Pyongyang and the DMZ. Pictures and stories to come! By the way, I tag this post with leadership because, as you'll see, we did a lot more than just tour around. We interacted directly with many North Koreans, especially kids. You'll be amazed at what we did. We heard other groups complaining to their guides that they couldn't do things we did. I don't know when the U.S. and North Korea will have peaceful relations, but I can tell you we brought it closer.

April 23, 2012

Blog / Events / Leadership / NorthKorea

See Joshua Spodek on understanding North Korea from a business strategy perspective in Beijing

My friend Sebastian organizes Lectures on Strategy, strategy talks to entrepreneurs and other strategists in Beijing, and invited me to speak to his group. If you're in Beijing, see me speak April 22 at 4pm, near the Shuangjing subway stop. RSVP to me or Sebastian (sebastian at sebastianmarshall.com) for details. I'm basing it on my talk at Columbia Business School last month, using mostly the same slides. He plans to record it, so I expect to post video eventually. Edit: Sebastian posted the video of the talk on his site and I wrote a bit about the discussion that followed.

April 22, 2012

Humor / NorthKorea

North Korean models

I just found this video one of my group-mates took that illustrates one of North Korea's benign oddities -- they make amazing scale models of things. Their museums are full of them. This video shows a model train. I'm not sure the value of showing these models. What do they convey besides model-making skills? I don't quite get it. You also hear at the beginning one of our funniest running jokes of the trip. "Leader Kim Jong Il" sounds like "little Kim Jong Il." We kept hearing "little Kim Jong Il did this ... little Kim Jong Il did that," which made it sound like they were describing his achievements as a baby. Then when our guide described what we heard as "Inside this train…

April 6, 2012

Humor / NorthKorea

Podcast from my August North Korea trip

Here's the first of two podcasts of four of my travel-mates made on our August 2011 visit to North Korea. The original is here. Jordan, who produced the podcast, runs a dating school, which is why you'll hear ads for it in the podcast. Neil runs a dating school too, among other things. Gabriel is a writer, among other things. Joseph took the most amazing pictures of North Korea I've seen. They also blog on North Korea at An American in North Korea and The North Korea Blog. [audio:https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NorthKoreaBlogPodcast+part+1.mp3]

April 5, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Nature / NorthKorea

Finding home by traveling far

My interactions with North Korea have taught me more about myself and my values than anything else in recent memory. I was going to say it taught me more about being an American, but being an American means something different to me today than it used to, and means something different to everyone. I'm thinking about America in the context of North Korea today because I'm in the middle of reading what appears a great work of American writing, or at least a companion to one. Anyone who knows me well knows my ranking of the top such works include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, and King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I haven't yet read Moby Dick and have…

April 4, 2012

Freedom / NorthKorea

A story of a North Korean prison camp

Today I'm just linking to a radio interview on a man born and raised in the North Korea prison camp system. Prepare yourself before listening since it gets serious. It speaks for itself. I understand the North Korean government generally states it has no prison camps. Visiting North Korea through the government tour, you would see no evidence of this story. Reading Nothing to Envy, you find out more about it too.

April 3, 2012

Nature / NorthKorea

North Korea, the environment, and trees

This NY TImes article on North Korea and its environment, Q. and A.: North Koreaâ€™s Choked Environment, reminded me of other routes to create bonds and understanding with North Korea -- nature and science. The article describes the current environmental situation there, some history, and how a conference on it went. Since the Korean War North Korea has lost trees, exacerbated by famine, mismanagement, flooding, and so on. Everybody gains from helping make an environment sustainable. Nearly everybody gains from free exchange of scientific information (people whose power depends on faith and dogma might not see how they do). Anyway, this article points out the usual problems with how North Korea communicates with the rest of the world -- spending resources showing off its leaders…

April 2, 2012

Obama’s missed North Korea opportunity

Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

Obama’s missed North Korea opportunity

When I first saw this picture, reading in the New York Times how "In South Korea Visit, Obama Visits Border and Warns North," I thought little of it, until I thought back to my earlier post on leadership opportunities for U.S. Presidents. I consider visiting a militarized border admirable and addressing North Korea important. But standing behind bulletproof glass is nothing like the speeches of Kennedy and Reagan. Maybe North Korea doesn't earn the same priority of the Soviet Union during the cold war, but it's a nuclear power that no one wants to keep as is. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6nQhss4Yc[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtYdjbpBk6A[/youtube] Times are different, of course, but the leadership opportunity remains. I'm no fan of Reagan, but even a "Mr. Kim, tear down this border" would go…

March 28, 2012

Education / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

The slides from my North Korea talk at Columbia Business School

Saturday's talk on North Korea at Columbia Business School went great -- a full room, an attentive audience, and great questions at the end. I didn't leave as much time for questions as I wish I had, but the organizer told me people told her they liked the talk a lot. Several people asked for copies of the slides so I'm posting them here instead of sending multiple emails.

March 26, 2012

Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

Another review of Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World’s Most Misunderstood Country

Joseph Ferris, who took the most breathtaking and evocative pictures of North Korea I've seen -- see them on Flickr (I recommend watching the whole slide show) -- reviewed my book, Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World's Most Misunderstood Country, in his blog, An American in North Korea. He wrote I admit that I was quite skeptical to learn that on his return he wrote a book on North Korea, itâ€™s a country that requires a career of study and dedication to research to understand â€“ at least from a historianâ€™s viewpoint.Â Instead, Joshua took his considerable business and entrepreneur experiences, along with his ability as a physicist to break down complex systems into easily understandable parts, and applied these talents to write a book…

March 20, 2012

Awareness / Blog / NorthKorea

A question on my North Korea talk at Columbia

A Columbia student responded to the announcement of my talk: I would be interested in why a human rights club is putting on what appears to be a sympathetic presentation on one of the world's most notorious human rights abusers. Shouldn't you be focusing on the plight of north Koreans rather than the "misunderstood" nature of an autocratic regime? Questions like his come up a lot. North Korea is an evocative subject for many and people approach it from different perspectives. I believe a few clarifications will help. First, I think the shortened title might imply a slightly different meaning than I intended when I suggested "North Korea: How Business Strategy Demystifies the World's Most Misunderstood Country". I'm not looking at anyone's strategy in the…

March 17, 2012

Blog / Education / NorthKorea

See Joshua Spodek on understanding North Korea from a business strategy perspective at Columbia Business School

Columbia Global Initiative for Human Rights Proudly Presents North Korea: Demystifying the Business Strategy of the World's Most Misunderstood Country * * * * * Lecture Description: Kim Jong Il's death this December has reignited popular intrigue about North Korea and justifiably so. Few understand this isolated and authoritarian country despite its paramount global importance. How can we understand this mysterious country, its leaders and its economy? Professors Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn's book, "Competition Demystified", provides a framework for understanding the strategic situation in North Korea. Despite the sensationalism, mystery, and widespread confusion in the media and popular perception, North Korea is simple to understand at the strategic level. Its simplicity makes it an excellent case study in understanding business strategy. Speaker: Joshua Spodek…

March 16, 2012

A North Korean vegan food blog

Who would have believed a North Korean vegan food blog could exist? And written by someone in New York City, home to no North Korean restaurants. Maybe this means I will get to try some reasonably authentic naengmyeon. Check it out: juchevegan.com: "The world's first English-language vegan food blog devoted to North Korean cuisine."

March 1, 2012

Planet Money on the North Korean economy

A podcast from NPR called Planet Money did a twenty-minute podcast last summer on the North Korean economy. I thought they did a great job, covering its size, its challenge of getting hard currencies other countries will accept, and its solutions. Since the country can't feed its people or fuel its army, the leaders have had to solve how to get themselves luxury goods. The solutions include leasing land rights, water rights, and its citizens' labor to China, Russia, and South Korea; selling statues to despotic regimes; and some exports on the legal side. On the illegal side it covers how North Korea sells weapons, drugs, and counterfeit money. The story interviewed a one-time North Korean cop who defected who helped the North Korean government's…

February 25, 2012

Freedom / NorthKorea

Grand Illusions and North Korea, part 1

People, left to themselves, don't seem to care about people on the other side of the planet. They seem to want to pursue happiness and enjoy themselves if they can. My observations in North Korea reinforced this sentiment. It raises the question why North Korea and the United States harbor so much animosity. History answers the question at a low level. My visit revealed to me deeper reasons. In all cases I got to speak to North Koreans, theyÂ distinguished between Americans and our government. In my limited experience there, I saw no individual animosity toward individuals, despite the anti-American propaganda. My greatest discovery in North Korea, so obvious in hindsight, was how similar people were there as any place else, and how unlike their…

January 31, 2012

Art / Creativity / Freedom / Leadership / Nature / NorthKorea

This land was made for you and me

Like most American kids of my generation, I learned This Land Is Your Land as a children's song, never thinking much of its meaning. A decade or two later, I heard Bruce Springsteen's version of it on his Live 75-85 set. His introduction first got me thinking about its meaning, especially in contrast to God Bless America. I didn't know Woodie Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land as an angry song. Springsteen's version on the album sounds mournful but then rousing and inclusive. On the Live 75-85 album I have, he introduced it as follows. There's a book out right now. It's called Woodie Guthrie, A Life. It's by this fellow called Joe Klein. And it's really a great book. This song was originally…

January 13, 2012

Hundreds of millions of counterfeit hundred dollar bills, part 3

At the end of my first post on this topic I speculated on the motivations of counterfeiters. The Vanity Fair article I mentioned in part 2 reminded me of other motivations that make the behavior more understandable to me. The North Korean bureaucracy that implements the counterfeiting, drug smuggling, and so on, according to the article, has many levels. Someone high up -- as high as Kim Jong Il, according to the article -- could decide to do something and remain insulated from how it happens or the consequences to anyone but himself. Meanwhile, people who implement it may risk their lives if they don't comply. But when I asked Liu why he had not made a deal with the prosecutors, using his inside knowledge…

January 12, 2012

Hundreds of millions of counterfeit hundred dollar bills, part 2

Following up yesterday's post on the New York Times's article on counterfeit hundred dollar bills and evidence pointing to the North Korean government having forged them, today let's look at a Vanity Fair article on the same topic. Vanity Fair wonderfully describes the network and system within North Korea and the international police work that found out what it did. It builds to a crescendo that in 2007 the U.S. had gotten close to prosecuting major players in a major counterfeiting network "We could have gone after the foreign personal bank accounts of the leadership because we could prove they were kingpins," Asher says. "We were going to indict the ultimate perpetrators of a global criminal network." "The world wanted evidence that North Korea is…

January 11, 2012

End of content

No more pages to load