Bongsu Park. Cord – Cell – Cube

http://wsimag.com/art/8100-bongsu-park-cord-cell-cube
An interview with Korean Performance Artist Bongsu Park

bongsu_park_caa57c_c

Bongsu, your characters move in space, hunting each other, touching each other, moving away. You were looking for a solution to visualize which belonged to the immaterial sphere of human relationships and you found it. When did your quest begin? Why video and dance as preferred medium? And why is it important to speak about human relationships?

My work questions the core of relationships; for me the oval is a shape, which represents this concept. At the beginning, my work gravitated around the idea and physical presence of the egg but this evolved into integrating the actual human body.

I’ve always been interested in contemporary dance; the combination of both new media and dance was a natural progression, which turned out to be a successful approach to express what I was and still am trying to say.

Your narratives are reflections on life, human cycles, and above all human relationships, which just like a pendulum go from one side to the other, with the two poles symbolizing the need for union and solitude. Why and when did you decide to focus on human relationships?

My work is always linked to the idea of the cycle, more precisely the human cycle. Before producing the dance pieces, I was particularly interested in the concept of birth and decay. Now, I am drawn to explore why people think differently by creating moments of dialogue with my public.

You use contemporary tools to visualize your plots and yet the game of metaphors which characterizes some of your works seems to have a far origin (or maybe it’s just by chanche). Let’s make an example. To describe the tension of human relationships in CORD performance you used a rope. The idea is that of an object suggesting people hunting, touching, moving away. A similar solution was adopted in 1611, or 1612 maybe, by the English poet John Donne who in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning compared his relationship with his wife to the legs of a drawing compass. Although the legs are separate components of the compass, Donne says in his poem, they are both part of the same object. The legs operate in unison. If the outer leg traces a circle, the inner leg – though its point is fixed at the center – must pivot in the direction of the outer leg. Thus, Donne adds, though he and his wife are separated, like the legs of the compass, they remain united because they are part of the same soul. So, which were your models, if you had any, to visualize abstract concepts just like human relationship with people coming, going, moving?

The whole concept revolves around: the point; the line; the surface; and the three-dimensional.

The point for me is a departure and a birth; a woman’s pregnant belly; or a simple round shape. The line connects; it is what ties a mother to her baby; it is the family tree. The line explains relationships.

When assembled, these horizontal and vertical lines and multitude of points make up the surface. This surface in my work is a space where we all live together.

Dance, which a timeless medium practiced since the conception of human kind, allows me to visualize these abstract concepts. Video on the other end is a medium of our time. Mixing both dance and video allows me create contemporary yet timeless pieces. 


In your past works such as CORD and CUBE you used ropes and cubes whereas you worked with the choreographer Yoomi Ahn. Did you sketch the idea together?

I’ve collaborated with Yoomi Ahn for all my videos involving dance. Our process is always the same: we live and work together in the same space. For CELL, my house was transformed into a large dance studio! Spending every moment with Yoomi is important, as this allows the ideas to be shared and developed naturally without force.

When and were did you meet her?

Yoomi and I met in France, in Grenoble, a few years ago. We used to live in the same apartment building. At the time, I was preparing my application for l’École des Beaux-Arts and Yoomi had just been offered a contract with the Limoges Opéra. We were both learning French, which is how we became friends. I often showed her my work and she invited me to her practices. This was 9 years ago; time flies!

What did you like about her choreographies?

I love how delicate Yoomi is. She has a great understanding of my work as she’s been following my career for a long time now. She expresses exactly what I want to say with her body. We have a great communication. Trained as a classic dancer but very much involved in the contemporary scene, Yoomi has a flexible approach and mind frame, which I find very inspiring.

For Cord-Cell-Cube you invited Yoomi Ahn. When did you discuss the project? How long did it take you to organize it?

We started discussing 5 months ago, but the core of the work was done here in London. We had an intensive 2 weeks of creation.

Geometry and geometrical concepts are the leit-motiv of your works. In your new project, the third of the trilogy, you applied basic facts about dots, lines, planes and three-dimensions, with the dancer conceived as the dot, the cord as the line, the cell as the plane, the cube, of course, as the tridimensional object. Was this trilogy clear in your mind since the beginning?

The trilogy did not cross my mind at first as the initial idea evolved a lot.

My process is always the same; it is about working with the instinct. Once everything is laid down and done, I then go back to revisit the meaning as well as relations with previous pieces. This is what happened with CELL. Everything came into focus afterwards: linking the point and line (CORD) with the three-dimensional (CUBE). I also wanted to pursue a photographic project of the same name, which I had started in 2008.

Three dancers, three instruments, two men, one woman, a violin, a cello, a viola. Here’s once again the male and female universes which, this time, meet according to a triangular scheme. Did I see well what I saw?

This idea of the triangle did cross my mind, but I did not really develop the idea during the creative process. It might be something I’ll comment on in the future, when I have more distance with the work.

Apart from geometrical concepts, in Cord-Cell-Cube you introduced the concept of similarity, with the string instruments imagined in conjunction with thread images. Nothing in your work is left to chance. Which will be the next step?

I am currently preparing a summer exhibition (2014), which will be presented by my London gallery, Rosenfeld Porcini. I am also editing and finalizing my new video work CELL, which is based on the performance.

I will have a short pop up exhibition at Hanmi Gallery in May (London).

I have so many new and exciting projects in mind particularly around sculpture. Performance and video are an integral part of my practice though; I really enjoy working with dancers and musicians, therefore you’ll definitely see more in a very near future!

Interview by Stefania Elena Carnemolla.

Bongsu Park. Cord – Cell – Cube will be at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery, London on the 20th of March 2014.

For more information visit: www.rosenfeldporcini.com

Kim Jong Il’s former sushi chef sees coup potential

In exclusive interview, Kenji Fujimoto says womanizing prompted Jang purge
http://www.nknews.org/2014/01/kim-jong-ils-former-sushi-chef-sees-coup-potential/
January 13th, 2014

Kosuke Takahashi1

TOKYO – A chef who served the very top of the Pyongyang elite thinks Kim Jong Un may soon face challengers intent on usurping his power.

Speculation among North Korea watchers has been even more rampant than usual since the very public ouster of Jang Song Thaek in December, with experts trying to figure out what’s going on inside the world’s most reclusive regime and what may come next.

Jang, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who had served as the nation’s No. 2 official, was suddenly executed for treason last month. Kim Kyong Hui, his wife and the blood aunt of Kim Jong Un, has also made no public appearances for months, with some media even speculating that she has already died of a heart attack or suicide.

Do the latest developments suggest Kim Jong Un is succeeding at consolidating his political power right now? Or is this just a manifestation of his struggles in doing so amid a mounting crisis over his power base?

One person who knows very well about North Korea’s inner circle, including the Kim family dynasty and the convoluted machinations in Pyongyang, is Kenji Fujimoto (a pseudonym).

Fujimoto was employed by the late former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il from 1989 to 2001 as his personal sushi chef, and he still refers to Kim Jong Il as “shogun” (“military commander” in Japanese). He visited Pyongyang in the summer of 2012 at the invitation of Kim Jong Un, stunning Pyongyang watchers and intelligence communities worldwide. While working for Kim Jong Il, the 40-to-50-something Fujimoto became Kim Jong Un’s favorite playmate in Pyongyang, even though during the period the junior Kim was only about 7-18 years old.

In his book, The North’s Successor, Kim Jong Un, Fujimoto wrote that he felt as if Kim Jong Un were his own son because they had spent so much time together.

In an exclusive interview with NK News held in Tokyo on January 9, Fujimoto made several noteworthy statements, despite his wife and daughter still being in Pyongyang, and thus vulnerable to reprisals from the Pyongyang government.

For one, Fujimoto said there is a high possibility of coup d’état or insurgency by the military following the Jang purge because the Kim family’s nepotistic power-grabbing is weakening in the absence of key family members.

Fujimoto also said that Jang may have been purged due to problems with women, even though the official reasons were treason and financial crimes. He said Jang had been in charge of Kippumjo, or young girls selected to provide pleasure and entertainment to high-ranking Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) officials. And because Kim Jong Un despises womanizing of this sort, Fujimoto believes he had him executed.

Interview conducted by Kosuke Takahashi and Ryo C. Kato. All pictures copyright NK News

kenji-fujimoto-nknews2

JANG SONG THAEK’S EXECUTION
NK News: Jang Song Thaek, who was seen as Kim Jong Un’s guardian, was purged and executed in December. What do you think about his execution?

Kenji Fujimoto: He was accused of being “despicable human scum, worse than a dog.” He must have angered Gen. Kim Jong Un to that extent.

Now, I know I should not make such negative conjectures, but let’s not forget that during Shogun Kim Jong Il’s era, Mr. Jang Song Thaek had a side job of being in charge of Kippumjo – the Pleasure Brigade.

A net was placed over the entire country to look for girls that would shine, “if only they were polished.” In this way, Mr. Jang received files on many beautiful young girls who had potential to be good singers and dancers, in some cases receiving as many as 100 girls’ files at a time.

These files would be inspected by Mr. Jang and after about 10 girls would be chosen to be presented to Shogun Kim Jong Il. Then they would decide when the subsequent interviews would be conducted. I’ve attended these interviews before as well, which used to be conducted at the Mokrankwan (or Mulan Hall), or a guest palace in Pyongyang.

During the interviews the 10 girls would be up on the stage. Shogun Kim Jong Il would have documents with all their birthplaces and so on, and he would ask questions here and there. If they were singers, they would sing right there. There would be separate auditions for dancers. The panel would ask them to raise their legs and all that.

NK News: How old were the girls?

KF: Usually 15 or 16. They were young because they retire when they’re 28 – dancers can’t go much more than that, since they damage their hips and backs. It’s amazing what they did.

NK News: So Jang Song Thaek had an image as an economic reform expert, but…

KF: Aside from that he was also assigned to this job maintaining Shogun Kim Jong Il’s Pleasure Brigade, you know, for the leaders’ pleasure.

“He loathes having relations with multiple women. And that’s why he conducted such a terrible execution”

Of the 10 girls (that would make it to Pyongyang), most of them were from the countryside. For some of them it would be their first time in Pyongyang. And (Jang Song Thaek) would say to each one, if you want to go to the Mokrankwan…if you want to make it in Pyongyang as a singer and get to the interview stage…Well, it’s like in Japan…You know how they say: “So what’ll it be? Come stay the night with me.”

NK News: So Jang was like a manager or a president at a talent agency?

KF: Right, it’s just like in Japan! Here there are guys that’ll take them all. So it was that kind of custom. But this is something that Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un hates the most. He loathes having relations with multiple women. And that’s why he conducted such a terrible execution.

NK News: So it was because of women?

KF: Exactly. He hates that kind of thing the most. His grandfather Kim Il Sung did similar things. His father also had quite a history with women. So having seen them, he wanted to prove that he’s different and that he would eradicate such practices. Basically, I think this was what the execution was about. So, regarding Mr. Jang Song Thaek, he did what the Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un hates the most: he had relations with multiple women. Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un could not forgive this, so he executed Mr. Jang Song Thaek, his caretaker and guardian.

To forget Mr. Jang as quickly as possible he executed him immediately after his trial. Ninety rounds from a machine gun. There’s no need to fire 90 rounds. I mean…aim for the head and aim for the heart and that’s that. Executions can be as simple as that. He truly was enraged. Ninety rounds from a machine gun. Then a flamethrower.

NK News: Jang Song Thaek’s poor reputation with women was known from a while back, right? If so, then why did this happen now?

KF: The rumor spread among the central committee elites. Back then (Kim Jong Un) was still young. But he’s married now and has children. I mean, North Korea is a country that hates to debase its public moral values, especially through that kind of immoral behavior. So it ignited Kim’s rage.

NK News: There has been press [at the time of interview] about hungry dogs, from media from Hong Kong. I don’t know if that’s true or not but…

KF: Even if that’s true, it proves the point even more.

The important thing is this: That he wanted to rid Mr. Jang Song Thaek from the Republic – I don’t say North Korea, I say “the Republic”… He wanted to ensure that Jang left no footprint in the Republic, to make it seem he never existed in the Republic. I like to stress these three points, because by doing so Jang could be forgotten.

So, of course, now Mr. Kim Jong Un is alone, and when he is alone, he sheds tears…

NK News: In your book you said Jang Song Thaek supported Kim Jong Il as his closest confidant. You also said that you expected this role would continue during the Kim Jong Un era. Given that he was the closest advisor among even the closest advisors, was the decision to cut off Jang Song Thaek therefore not quite a bold decision?

KF: Yes, because Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un was truly enraged.

NK News: You said in one of your books that Jang was a very diligent man and at times there could be friction between him and Kim Jong Il.

KF: That has nothing to do with this. All this and that about a coup d’état (in official media), that has nothing to do with anything. I mean, what are you going to do by staging a coup and grabbing power? If you sit behind Kim Jong Un, you can eat well…especially if you were his caretaker!

(A coup attempt) has nothing to do with it. But that kind of label is necessary for executions. “Treason,” “grand treason;” they wrote all sorts of things, even that he was taking drugs. How stupid, “drugs.” Everyone would know if someone was using drugs. Nonsense! Those labels are just necessary for these kinds of things.

NK News: To solidify Kim Jong Un’s legitimacy or authority…?

KF: (It had) nothing to do with that. The execution was only about Jang’s relations with women.

NK News: But according to analysis by South Korean intelligence, this recent purge and execution was related to disagreements over coal mining business.

KF: It had absolutely nothing to do with politics.

NK News: In the lead up to Jang Song Thaek’s execution, two of his close confidants – Ri Yong Ha and Jang Soo Kil – were also publicly executed.

KF: Jang Soo Kil is… his brother, right? He was the ambassador. He was called back and executed. If they executed the Jang group, they’d run away! They’d reveal it somehow and everyone (close to Jang) will escape.

fujimoto-nknews-kim-jong-il-sushi-chef

A FAMILY POWER STRUGGLE?
NK News: In your latest book you wrote that you wanted Kim Jong Un’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong to read the book, in addition to Kim Jong Un himself. However, I note that Kim Jong Un’s brother Jong Chol does not appear in the book by name. Was there a reason for his exclusion?

KF: He was not at the party (that Fujimoto attended in Pyongyang in summer 2012). I was not in a position to ask Gen. Kim Jong Un if Comrade Gen. Jong Chol Daejang was present there or not. I can’t do that!

He had a reason for not being at the party and because I could not ask why he was not there, I could not include his name in the book.

NK News: I thought that you had written that you wanted Kim Yo Jong to read the book because she was being promoted. It’s not like that, though?

KF: No. It’s not like that.

NK News: So the recent power struggle in Pyongyang is nothing to do with a possible power struggle among two brothers and a sister in the Kim family?

KF: It has nothing to do with it. His big brother Jong Chol is not involved in that kind of thing.

NK News: How was it decided that Kim Jong Un would be leader over Jong Chol?

KF: Shogun Kim Jong Il decided that the siblings would never fight for power.

As I wrote in one of the books, I once had a five-hour conversation with Mr. Kim Jong Un on a special train.

A week or so before that at the Wonsan guesthouse I strongly suspect that Shogun Kim Jong Il and his wife Ms. Ko Yong Hui sat side-by-side with their two sons sit in front.

Shogun Kim Jong Il probably asked Gen. Jong Chol, “Do you have any interest in being heir?” Presumably, Gen. Jong Chol said no. Then they told him, “I see, if not we will have your brother Jong Un as heir. Is that fine?”

“Yes,” he would have answered. They cannot be allowed to fight and (Kim Jong Il) set that straight.

NK News: Did that happen in 2001, before you escaped?

KF: Yes, before I escaped.

After that conversation, when Gen. Comrade Jong Un came into my room on the train, his face looked so serious. I could tell something had happened.

“It was then that Gen. Jong Un was made aware that he would be heir instead of Gen. Comrade Jong Chol”

Usually, he’d come in saying, “Fujimoto. Cigarette.” That time, no mention of a cigarette.

As if deep in thought. I asked, “Gen. Jong Un, is there something you want to talk about?” He probably wanted to talk about it, but couldn’t.

At that point, though the heir had not been announced, it was then that Gen. Jong Un was made aware that he would be heir instead of Gen. Comrade Jong Chol. This was established from a young age to ensure that a power struggle wouldn’t later arise.

Gen. Jong Chol is not the kind of person to recreate a story and position himself to take power by establishing some faction.

NK News: Some people say that Kim Jong Un’s transition to power was difficult due to his short grooming period. But you are suggesting Kim was actually getting ready for leadership from 2001, that he was cognizant of his destiny for all that time?

KF: Yes. But it’s tough from here onwards for him.

This is my final thought: His blood relatives are thinning out, there is only his older brother Prince Jong Chol and his sister Princess Yo Jong. Now there are only the three of them. How are they going to protect the Kim court?

“It’s tough from here onwards for him…I see a very high possibility of a coup d’état”

It’d be easy to tip them over, especially now that Mr. Jang Song Thaek is gone. Mr. Choe Ryong Hae is only there to manage the military. They used to have Mr. Jang and Mr. Choe, glaring at the elites to keep the military in line. Now they have only the one. I’m sure Mr. Choe has many subordinates. But it’ll be difficult for Gen. Jong Un to keep control now.

NK News: Do you see any possibilities of coup d’état?

KF: Yes, I see a very high possibility of that. And insurgencies. There will definitely be cases of power struggles.

NK News: So Kim Jong Un must control the military, correct?

KF: He must control it. The Central Committee only has a pen as a weapon. The military has the actual weapons. The victor in that fight is plain to see.

NK News: Is it okay for you to say such things? I mean you still have a wife and daughter over there in Pyongyang.

KF: Yes, it is scary (laughs).

NK News: Wouldn’t Kim Jong Un get angry? Talking about coups?

KF: “Fujimoto, are you promoting a coup?” he’d say. But seriously, I am worried for him.

kosuke-fujimoto1

CHOE RYONG-HAE
NK News: Another topic. It seems that Choe Ryong Hae – a former subordinate of Jang Song Thaek – has received quite the vote of confidence from Kim Jong Un. He is now a rising star, and rumor has it was he that pushed Jang Song Thaek out. Do you think it is anything like that?

KF: It is unthinkable for Mr. Choe Ryong Hae and Mr. Jang Song Thaek to fight, because Mr. Jang saved Mr. Choe’s life.

From 1988 to 1989, Mr. Choe Ryong Hae was building a bowling lane and received a lot of money from the Zainichi (ethnic Koreans in Japan) community. He also received a bribe. But you know that money really changes people? It is said that Choe was hiding between $100,000 – $150,000. He hid that money at the bottom of a rice bin.

But in 1988 there had been an order in Pyongyang to purge anyone found to be corrupt, even in the highest circles. So eventually Mr. Choe Ryong Hae was found out.

“Mr. Jang saved Mr. Choe’s life”

Even though his father Choe Hyon is a hero of the first degree, there were even rumors that he (urinated) on his father’s grave. It was such a widespread rumor that there was no one who didn’t know. So soon Mr. Choe Ryong Hae was exiled.

Personally, I think exile is a heavy punishment. One does not get any food rations. But a man has to eat, so he one must catch mice, moles and snakes to survive.

NK News: So when one someone is put in exile, they are taken away up to the mountains?

KF: Yes, apparently, it’s something like that. Well, I wrote in one of my books, that Mr. Jang Song Thaek once promised to save Mr. Choe Ryong Hae. And after that, in just four or five years, Choe was acquitted. I am sure it was because Mr. Jang had an “in” with Shogun Kim Jong Il.

NK News: Did you ever meet with Choe Ryong Hae?

KF: Yes, he’d be there at the parties.

NK News: What kind of person was he?

KF: He is about my height, with fierce eyes.

NK News: A very loyal person?

KF: Definitely. Very loyal. As students, Mr. Jang Song Thaek and Mr. Choe Ryong Hae both had eyes for Ms. Kim Kyong Hui. They are about the same age. Well, (Choe) is slightly younger. Maybe a year younger than me.

kosuke-fujimoto

KIM KYONG HUI
NK News: About Kim Jong Il’s sister, Kim Kyong Hui. Recently the Asahi Shimbun reported that she was in Russia with an ailment. However, the Chosun Ilbo reported that she might have committed suicide, after the purge.

KF: That is an impertinent thing to say of a living person. So she’d been in Russia?

NK News: Yes, apparently between September to October she had been receiving treatment in Russia. But this was quite a bit before the execution of Jang Song Thaek. So what’s going on now?

KF: ”She was an alcoholic. Her body was broken”

I got a call from [name obscured] asking about her yesterday. I said that if she is dead that it was probably suicide.

When faced with being in favor or not of Mr. Jang Song Thaek’s execution…How could she choose? I told them that she had probably became a mental and physical wreck…She was an alcoholic. Her body was broken.

NK News: In the book you also say that she would call out “Jang Song Thaek!” – but without traditional honorifics. Was it something like the flip-side of love?

KF: Yeah, well, that was when she was drunk. She’d bring a bottle to Mr. Jang Song Thaek who was standing in the back. This bottle, of course, would have been Shogun Kim Jong Il’s liquor, therefore you had to stand. Mr. Jang Song Thaek would see her coming towards him (with the bottle), but sometimes he would not stand. And then she’d yell out Jang~ Song~ Thaek~! As if she was saying, “You aren’t drinking?” And he’d drink.

There were moments like that. But (the lack of honorifics) had nothing to do with her liking him or not. They’d been married for a long time. And like I said, Mr. Jang Song Thaek’s side-business was to gather beautiful young girls. Mr. Jang Song Thaek had a weakness for cute girls. And he could do whatever he wanted with them…

NK News: And Kim Kyong Hui did not get mad about that?

KF: Why would she get mad for? They’re not young kids, for goodness sake. I mean she probably knew that she probably couldn’t be a good lover to him, considering her age. Especially since she was always drinking.

Korea Execution Is Tied to Clash Over Businesses

By CHOE SANG-HUN and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: December 23, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/asia/north-korea-purge.html

SEOUL, South Korea — The execution of the uncle of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, had its roots in a firefight between forces loyal to Mr. Kim and those supporting the man who was supposed to be his regent, according to accounts that are being pieced together by South Korean and American officials. The clash was over who would profit from North Korea’s most lucrative exports: coal, clams and crabs.

North Korean military forces were deployed to retake control of one of the sources of those exports, the rich crab and clam fishing grounds that Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of the country’s untested, 30-year-old leader, had seized from the military. In the battle for control of the fishing grounds, the emaciated, poorly trained North Korean forces “were beaten — very badly — by Uncle Jang’s loyalists,” according to one official.

The rout of his forces appears to have been the final straw for Mr. Kim, who saw his 67-year-old uncle as a threat to his authority over the military and, just as important, to his own family’s dwindling sources of revenue. Eventually, at Mr. Kim’s order, the North Korean military came back with a larger force and prevailed. Soon, Mr. Jang’s two top lieutenants were executed.

The two men died in front of a firing squad. But instead of rifles, the squad used antiaircraft machine guns, a form of execution that according to South Korean intelligence officials and news media was similar to the one used against some North Korean artists in August. Days later, Mr. Jang himself was publicly denounced, tried and executed, by more traditional means.

Given the opaqueness of North Korea’s inner circle, many details of the struggle between Mr. Kim and his uncle remain murky. But what is known suggests that while Mr. Kim has consolidated control and eliminated a potential rival, it has been at a huge cost: The open warfare between the two factions has revealed a huge fracture inside the country’s elite over who pockets the foreign currency — mostly Chinese renminbi — the country earns from the few nonnuclear exports its trading partners desire.

Only a few months ago Mr. Jang was believed to be the second most powerful man in North Korea. In fact, American intelligence agencies had reported to the White House and the State Department in late 2011 that he could well be running the country behind the scenes — and might edge out his inexperienced nephew for control. In part that was based on his deep relationship with top officials in China, as well as his extensive business connections there.

His highly unusual public humiliation and execution on Dec. 12 set off speculation about the possibility of a power struggle within the secretive government. But in recent days a more complex, nuanced story has emerged.

During a closed-door meeting on Monday of the South Korean National Assembly’s intelligence committee, Nam Jae-joon, the director of the National Intelligence Service, disputed the North’s assertion that Mr. Jang had tried to usurp his nephew’s power. Rather, he said, Mr. Jang and his associates had provoked the enmity of rivals within the North’s elite by dominating lucrative business deals, starting with the coal badly needed by China, the North’s main trading partner.

“There had been friction building up among the agencies of power in North Korea over privileges and over the abuse of power by Jang Song-thaek and his associates,” Mr. Nam was quoted as saying. Mr. Nam’s comments were relayed to the news media by Jeong Cheong-rae and Cho Won-jin, two lawmakers designated as spokesmen for the parliamentary committee.

In interviews, officials have said that the friction described in general terms to the South Korean Parliament played out in a violent confrontation in late September or early October, just north of the western sea border between the Koreas.

There, the North harvests one of its major exports: crabs and clams, delicacies that are also highly valued by the Chinese. For years the profits from those fishing grounds, along with the output from munitions factories and trading companies, went directly to the North Korean military, helping it feed its troops, and enabling its top officers to send cash gifts to the Kim family.

South Korea was a major market for the North’s mushrooms, clams, crabs, abalones and sea cucumbers until the South cut off trade with the North after the sinking of a South Korean Navy ship in 2010, forcing the North Korean military to rely on the Chinese market.

But when Mr. Kim succeeded his father two years ago, he took away some of the military’s fishing and trading rights and handed them to his cabinet, which he designated as the main agency to revive the economy. Mr. Jang was believed to have been a leading proponent of curtailing the military’s economic power.

Mr. Jang appears to have consolidated many of those trading rights under his own control — meaning that profits from the coal, crabs and clams went into his accounts, or those of state institutions under his control, including the administrative department of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, which he headed.

But this fall, the long-brewing tensions that arrangement created broke into the open. Radio Free Asia, in a report last week that cited anonymous North Korean sources, reported that Mr. Kim saw North Korean soldiers malnourished during his recent visits to islands near the disputed western sea border. They say he ordered Mr. Jang to hand over the operation of nearby fishing grounds back to the military.

According to accounts put together by South Korean and American officials, Mr. Jang and his associates resisted. When a company of about 150 North Korean soldiers showed up at the farm, Mr. Jang’s loyalists refused to hand over the operation, insisting that Mr. Jang himself would have to approve. The confrontation escalated into a gun battle, and Radio Free Asia reports that two soldiers were killed and that the army backed off. Officials say the number of casualties is unknown, but they have received similar accounts.

It is hard to know exactly how large a role the episode played in Mr. Jang’s downfall — there is more money in coal than in seafood — but Mr. Kim was reportedly enraged when he heard of the clash. Mr. Nam said that by mid-November his agents were already reporting that Mr. Jang had been detained. The Dec. 12 verdict noted that Mr. Jang “instructed his stooges to sell coal and other precious underground resources at random.”

Mr. Nam said the fact that such behind-the-scenes tensions had spun so far out of control that Mr. Kim had to order his own uncle’s execution raised questions about the government’s internal unity.

“The fissure within the regime could accelerate if it further loses popular support,” the lawmakers quoted Mr. Nam as saying.

Mr. Jang was the husband of Kim Kyong-hui, the only sister of Mr. Kim’s father, the longtime leader Kim Jong-il. Mr. Nam told the committee Monday that Mr. Kim’s aunt had retained her position in the hierarchy, even while the purge of Mr. Jang’s other associates continued. But he denied news reports in South Korea and Japan that some of Mr. Jang’s associates were seeking political asylum in Seoul and Beijing.

Mr. Nam pointed to Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, the top political officer in the North Korean People’s Army, and Kim Won-hong, the head of the North’s secret police and its intelligence chief, as the government’s new rising figures since Mr. Jang’s execution, the two lawmakers said.

Kim’s uncle Jang Song Thaek purged and killed

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bfd390f6-63dd-11e3-b70d-00144feabdc0.html

Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s first leader, reportedly took such exception to the boyfriend of his daughter Kyung Hui that he had him expelled from university and despatched to the distant city of Wonsan.

Undaunted, Jang Song Thaek eventually returned to Pyongyang to claim Ms Kim’s hand in marriage, and began his rise to the highest level of the state apparatus. Reportedly purged from the central party in the late 1970s and again in 2003, Jang seemed to bounce back stronger from each setback, developing a reputation as the great survivor of North Korean politics.

Jang’s summary execution – reported by state media on Friday – marked a spectacular demise for a man seen until recently as the most powerful adviser to Kim Jong Un. It also raised questions about the potential for further instability in the court of the world’s youngest national leader.

Describing him as “despicable human scum”, state media said Jang had been put to death immediately after his conviction for treason by a military tribunal, where he confessed to having plotted a coup against Mr Kim.

“I was going to stage the coup by using army officers who had close ties with me,” Jang was reported as saying. “It was my intention to . . . become premier when the economy goes totally bankrupt and the state is on the verge of collapse.”

As vice-chairman of the powerful national defence commission and head of the ruling party’s administration department, Jang was seen by some analysts as a regent to the inexperienced ruler, and was shown frequently by his side at official events.

Yet that same media footage contained hints of an overly confident attitude that may have prompted his demise. During a big speech by Mr Kim in January, as other top officials sat ramrod straight in rapt attention, Jang slouched casually to one side. On a day of site visits two months earlier, he was shown strolling behind his nephew with one hand in his pocket, and later flanking him with both hands behind his back – a gesture of superiority in Korean culture.

“Jang tried hard to create [an] illusion about him by projecting himself internally and externally as a special being on a par with [Mr Kim],” state media said.

Some analysts have portrayed Jang’s demise as a natural step in Mr Kim’s assertion of power as he replaces an older generation of officials with new ones who will owe their positions to him. South Korean intelligence suggests he has overseen the replacement of about 100 of the top 218 party and military officials.

By ousting and shaming Jang so publicly – including vivid coverage on domestic television and the front page of the national Rodong Sinmun newspaper – Mr Kim appears to be seeking to demonstrate his absolute authority to the broader population, as well. “This is about flexing muscle,” says John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei university. In recent days, state media has begun referring to him as uidaehan ryongdoja, or “great leader” – a title also used by his father and grandfather.

But the lurid detailing of Jang’s alleged crimes comes with risks. “Nobody can now say there isn’t factionalism in North Korea – there is clearly a form of intra-regime factionalism, and the window on that has now been opened to the ordinary North Korean people,” says Sokeel Park, research director at Liberty in North Korea, a non-governmental group.

Rather than present Jang’s as an isolated case of counter-revolutionary thought, state media described an extended network of senior dissenters. It also drew attention to rampant high-level corruption, as it condemned Jang for illicitly profiting from the country’s abundant natural resources.

Moreover, by describing Jang as expecting North Korean economic collapse, state media has indicated doubts at the highest level about Mr Kim’s promise to drive national development and raise living standards. In a speech in 2012, the leader said he would ensure the people “will never have to tighten their belts again”.

“There is now an explicit linking of the regime’s legitimacy with being able to deliver for the average person,” Mr Delury says.

Visitors to Pyongyang report conspicuous signs of greater prosperity, such as better stocked shops and more cars on the streets, as well as a spurt in construction activity. But this increase in consumption and state expenditure could prove dangerous, says Rüdiger Frank at the University of Vienna.

“The sudden increase in unproductive state spending without [major] reforms suggests that the North Korean state is living on its reserves,” Mr Frank wrote this week. “Once they are depleted, trouble is inevitable.”

Under Mr Kim, North Korea has experimented with allowing more autonomy in agricultural and manufacturing production, and announced new special economic zones to attract foreign investment. It has also maintained the policy of turning a blind eye to the thriving informal markets that have filled the gap left by the defunct state distribution system.

But the condemnation of the “reformist” Jang, “influenced by the capitalist way of thinking”, bodes ill for any hopes of sweeping structural change in North Korea.

“He was willing to listen . . . he was interested in the South Korean economy,” says Moon Chung-in, a former South Korean presidential adviser who met Jang three times. Even during a heavy late-night drinking session in 2002, Jang “never lost his composure”, Mr Moon recalls.

“I was surprised to see him accused of these counter-revolutionary acts . . . he was very prudent, unassuming. He was always trying to stay in the shadows.”

Traitor Jang Song Thaek Executed

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201312/news09/20131209-05ee.html

Pyongyang, December 13 (KCNA) — Upon hearing the report on the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the service personnel and people throughout the country broke into angry shouts that a stern judgment of the revolution should be meted out to the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional elements. Against the backdrop of these shouts rocking the country, a special military tribunal of the DPRK Ministry of State Security was held on December 12 against traitor for all ages Jang Song Thaek.

The accused Jang brought together undesirable forces and formed a faction as the boss of a modern day factional group for a long time and thus committed such hideous crime as attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state.

The tribunal examined Jang’s crimes.

All the crimes committed by the accused were proved in the course of hearing and were admitted by him.

A decision of the special military tribunal of the Ministry of State Security of the DPRK was read out at the trial.

Every sentence of the decision served as sledge-hammer blow brought down by our angry service personnel and people on the head of Jang, an anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional element and despicable political careerist and trickster.

The accused is a traitor to the nation for all ages who perpetrated anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of our party and state and the socialist system.

Jang was appointed to responsible posts of the party and state thanks to the deep political trust of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il and received benevolence from them more than any others from long ago.

He held higher posts than before and received deeper trust from supreme leader Kim Jong Un, in particular.

The political trust and benevolence shown by the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu were something he hardly deserved.

It is an elementary obligation of a human being to repay trust with sense of obligation and benevolence with loyalty.

However, despicable human scum Jang, who was worse than a dog, perpetrated thrice-cursed acts of treachery in betrayal of such profound trust and warmest paternal love shown by the party and the leader for him.

From long ago, Jang had a dirty political ambition. He dared not raise his head when Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were alive. But, reading their faces, Jang had an axe to grind and involved himself in double-dealing. He began revealing his true colors in the period of historic turn when the generation of the revolution was replaced, thinking that it was just the time for him to realize his wild ambition.

Jang committed such an unpardonable thrice-cursed treason as overtly and covertly standing in the way of settling the issue of succession to the leadership with an axe to grind when a very important issue was under discussion to hold respected Kim Jong Un in high esteem as the only successor to Kim Jong Il in reflection of the unanimous desire and will of the entire party and army and all people.

When his cunning move proved futile and the decision that Kim Jong Un was elected vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea in reflection of the unanimous will of all party members, service personnel and people was proclaimed at the historic Third Conference of the WPK, making all participants break into enthusiastic cheers that shook the conference hall, he behaved so arrogantly and insolently as unwillingly standing up from his seat and half-heartedly clapping, touching off towering resentment of our service personnel and people.

Jang confessed that he behaved so at that time as a knee-jerk reaction as he thought that if Kim Jong Un’s base and system for leading the army were consolidated, this would lay a stumbling block in his way of grabbing the power of the party and state.

When Kim Jong Il passed away so suddenly and untimely to our sorrow, Jang began working in real earnest to realize his long-cherished greed for power.

Abusing the honor of often accompanying Kim Jong Un during his field guidance, Jang tried hard to create illusion about him by projecting himself internally and externally as a special being on a par with the headquarters of the revolution.

In a bid to rally a group of reactionaries to be used by him for toppling the leadership of the party and state, he let the undesirable and alien elements including those who had been dismissed and relieved of their posts after being severely punished for disobeying the instructions of Kim Jong Il and kowtowing to Jang work in a department of the Central Committee of the WPK and organs under it in a crafty manner.

Jang did serious harm to the youth movement in our country, being part of the group of renegades and betrayers in the field of youth work bribed by enemies. Even after they were disclosed and purged by the resolute measure of the party, he patronized those cat’s paws and let them hold important posts of the party and state.

He let Ri Ryong Ha, flatterer, work with him since the 1980s whenever he was transferred to other posts and systematically promoted Ri up to the post of first vice department director of the Party Central Committee though he had been purged for his factional act of denying the unitary leadership of the party. Jang thus made Ri his trusted stooge.

Jang let his confidants and flatterers who had been fired for causing an important case of denying the unitary leadership of the party work in his department and organs under it in a crafty manner in a few years. He systematically rallied ex-convicts, those problematic in their past careers and discontented elements around him and ruled over them as sacred and inviolable being.

He worked hard to put all affairs of the country under his control, massively increasing the staff of his department and organs under it, and stretch his tentacles to ministries and national institutions. He converted his department into a “little kingdom” which no one dares touch.

He was so impudent as to prevent the Taedonggang Tile Factory from erecting a mosaic depicting Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and a monument to field guidance given by them. Moreover, Jang turned down the unanimous request of the service personnel of a unit of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces to have the autograph letter sent by Kim Jong Un to the unit carved on a natural granite and erected with good care in front of the building of its command. He was so reckless as to instruct the unit to erect it in a shaded corner.

He committed such anti-party acts as systematically denying the party’s line and policies, its organizational will, in the past period. These acts were a revelation of deliberate and sinister attempt to create extreme illusion and idolization of him by making him appear as a special being who can overrule either issues decided by the party or its line.

He went so rude as to take in the middle even those things associated with intense loyalty and sincerity of our army and people towards the party and the leader and distribute them among his confidants in an effort to take credit to himself for doing so. This behavior was to create illusion about him.

Due to his persistent moves to create illusion and idolization of him his flatterers and followers in his department and organs under it praised him as “comrade No. 1.” They went the lengths of denying even the party’s instructions to please him at any cost.

Jang established such a heterogeneous work system in his department and the relevant organs as considering what he said as more important than the party’s policies. Consequently, his trusted henchmen and followers made no scruple of perpetrating such counter-revolutionary act as disobeying the order of the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army.

The revolutionary army will never pardon all those who disobey the order of the Supreme Commander and there will be no place for them to be buried even after their death.

Dreaming a fantastic dream to become premier at an initial stage to grab the supreme power of the party and state, Jang made his department put major economic fields of the country under its control in a bid to disable the Cabinet. In this way he schemed to drive the economy of the country and people’s living into an uncontrollable catastrophe.

He put inspection and supervision organs belonging to the Cabinet under his control in defiance of the new state machinery established by Kim Jong Il at the First Session of the Tenth Supreme People’s Assembly. Jang put all issues related to all structural works handled by the Cabinet under his control and had the final say on them, making it impossible for the Cabinet to properly perform its function and role as the economic command. They included the issues of setting up and disorganizing committees, ministries and national institutions and provincial, city and county-level organs, organizing units for foreign trade and for earning foreign money and structures overseas and fixing living allowances.

When he attempted to make a false report to the party without having agreement with the Cabinet and the relevant ministry on the issue related to the state construction supervision organization, officials concerned expressed just opinion that his behavior was contrary to the construction law worked out by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Hearing this, he made the reckless remark that “the rewriting of the construction law would solve the problem.”

Abusing his authority, he undermined the work system related to the construction of the capital city established by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, reducing the construction and building-materials bases to such bad shape little short of debris in a few years. He weakened the ranks of technicians and skilled workers at the units for the construction of the capital city in a crafty manner and transferred major construction units to his confidants so that they might make money. In this way he deliberately disturbed the construction in Pyongyang.

He instructed his confidants to sell coal and other precious underground resources at random. Consequently, they were saddled with huge debts, deceived by brokers. Jang made no scruple of committing such act of treachery in May last as selling off the land of the Rason economic and trade zone to a foreign country for a period of five decades under the pretext of paying those debts.

It was none other than Jang who wirepulled behind scene Pak Nam Gi, traitor for all ages, to recklessly issue hundreds of billions of won in 2009, sparking off serious economic chaos and disturbing the people’s mind-set.

Jang encouraged money-making under various pretexts to secure funds necessary for gratifying his political greed and was engrossed in irregularities and corruption. He thus took the lead in spreading indolent, careless and undisciplined virus in our society.

After collecting precious metals since the construction of Kwangbok Street in the 1980s, he set up a secret organ under his control and took a fabulous amount of funds from a bank and purchased precious metals in disregard of the state law. He thus committed such anti-state criminal acts as creating a great confusion in financial management system of the state.

He let the decadent capitalist lifestyle find its way to our society by distributing all sorts of pornographic pictures among his confidants since 2009. He led a dissolute and depraved life, squandering money wherever he went.

He took at least 4.6 million Euro from his secret coffers and squandered it in 2009 alone and enjoyed himself in casino in a foreign country. These facts alone clearly show how corrupt and degenerate he was.

Jang was so reckless with his greed for power that he persistently worked to stretch his tentacles even to the People’s Army with a foolish calculation that he would succeed in staging a coup if he mobilized the army.

He fully revealed his despicable true colors as a traitor for all ages in the course of questioning by uttering as follows: “I attempted to trigger off discontent among service personnel and people that the present regime does not take any measure despite the fact that the economy of the country and people’s living are driven into catastrophe. Comrade supreme leader is the target of the coup.”

As regards the means and methods for staging the coup, Jang said: “I was going to stage the coup by using high-ranking army officers who had close ties with me or by mobilizing armed forces under the control of my confidants. I don’t know well about recently appointed high-ranking army officers but have some acquaintances with those appointed in the past period. I thought the army might join in the coup if the living of the people and service personnel further deteriorate in the future. And I calculated that my confidants in my department including Ri Ryong Ha and Jang Su Gil would surely follow me and had a plan to use the one in charge of the people’s security organ as my confidant. It was my calculation that I might use several others beside them.”

Asked about the timing of the coup and his plan to do after staging the coup, Jang answered: “I didn’t fix the definite time for the coup. But it was my intention to concentrate my department and all economic organs on the Cabinet and become premier when the economy goes totally bankrupt and the state is on the verge of collapse in a certain period. I thought that if I solve the problem of people’s living to a certain measure by spending an enormous amount of funds I have accumulated under various names after becoming premier, the people and service personnel will shout “hurrah” for me and I will succeed in the coup in a smooth way.”

Jang dreamed such a foolish dream that once he seizes power by a base method, his despicable true colors as “reformist” known to the outside world would help his “new government” get “recognized” by foreign countries in a short span of time.

All facts go to clearly prove that Jang is a thrice-cursed traitor without an equal in the world as he had desperately worked for years to destabilize and bring down the DPRK and grab the supreme power of the party and state by employing all the most cunning and sinister means and methods, pursuant to the “strategic patience” policy and “waiting strategy” of the U.S. and the south Korean puppet group of traitors.

The hateful and despicable nature of the anti-party, anti-state and unpopular crimes committed by Jang was fully disclosed in the course of the trial conducted at the special military tribunal of the DPRK Ministry of State Security.

The era and history will eternally record and never forget the shuddering crimes committed by Jang Song Thaek, the enemy of the party, revolution and people and heinous traitor to the nation.

No matter how much water flows under the bridge and no matter how frequently a generation is replaced by new one, the lineage of Paektu will remain unchanged and irreplaceable.

Our party, state, army and people do not know anyone except Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un.

Our service personnel and people will never pardon all those who dare disobey the unitary leadership of Kim Jong Un, challenge his absolute authority and oppose the lineage of Mt. Paektu to an individual but bring them to the stern court of history without fail and mercilessly punish them on behalf of the party and revolution, the country and its people, no matter where they are in hiding.

The special military tribunal of the Ministry of State Security of the DPRK confirmed that the state subversion attempted by the accused Jang with an aim to overthrow the people’s power of the DPRK by ideologically aligning himself with enemies is a crime punishable by Article 60 of the DPRK Criminal Code, vehemently condemned him as a wicked political careerist, trickster and traitor for all ages in the name of the revolution and the people and ruled that he would be sentenced to death according to it.

The decision was immediately executed. -0-

Report on Enlarged Meeting of Political Bureau of Central Committee of WPK (Jang Song-thaek)

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201312/news09/20131209-05ee.html

Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) — A report on the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was released on December 8.

The following is the full text of the report:

An enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK was held in Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, on Dec. 8.

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the WPK, guided the meeting.

Present there were members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK.

Leading officials of the Central Committee of the WPK, provincial party committees and armed forces organs attended it as observers.

Our party members, service personnel and all other people have made energetic efforts to implement the behests of leader Kim Jong Il, entrusting their destiny entirely to Kim Jong Un and getting united close around the Central Committee of the WPK since the demise of Kim Jong Il, the greatest loss to the nation.

In this historic period for carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche the chance elements and alien elements who had made their ways into the party committed such anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts as expanding their forces through factional moves and daring challenge the party, while attempting to undermine the unitary leadership of the party.

In this connection, the Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK convened its enlarged meeting and discussed the issue related to the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts committed by Jang Song Thaek.

The meeting, to begin with, fully laid bare the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts of Jang Song Thaek and their harmfulness and reactionary nature.

It is the immutable truth proved by the nearly 70-year-long history of the WPK that the party can preserve its revolutionary nature as the party of the leader and fulfill its historic mission only when it firmly ensures its unity and cohesion based on the monolithic idea and the unitary center of leadership.

The entire party, whole army and all people are dynamically advancing toward the final victory in the drive for the building of a thriving nation, meeting all challenges of history and resolutely foiling the desperate moves of the enemies of the revolution under the leadership of Kim Jong Un. Such situation urgently calls for consolidating as firm as a rock the single-minded unity of the party and the revolutionary ranks with Kim Jong Un as its unitary centre and more thoroughly establishing the monolithic leadership system of the party throughout the party and society.

The Jang Song Thaek group, however, committed such anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts as gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party and disturbing the work for establishing the party unitary leadership system and perpetrated such ant-state, unpopular crimes as doing enormous harm to the efforts to build a thriving nation and improve the standard of people’s living.

Jang pretended to uphold the party and leader but was engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams and involving himself in double-dealing behind the scene.

Though he held responsible posts of the party and state thanks to the deep political trust of the party and leader, he committed such perfidious acts as shunning and obstructing in every way the work for holding President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in high esteem for all ages, behaving against the elementary sense of moral obligation and conscience as a human being.

Jang desperately worked to form a faction within the party by creating illusion about him and winning those weak in faith and flatterers to his side.

Prompted by his politically-motivated ambition, he tried to increase his force and build his base for realizing it by implanting those who had been punished for their serious wrongs in the past period into ranks of officials of departments of the party central committee and units under them.

Jang and his followers did not sincerely accept the line and policies of the party, the organizational will of the WPK, but deliberately neglected their implementation, distorted them and openly played down the policies of the party. In the end, they made no scruple of perpetrating such counter-revolutionary acts as disobeying the order issued by the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.

The Jang group weakened the party’s guidance over judicial, prosecution and people’s security bodies, bringing very harmful consequences to the work for protecting the social system, policies and people.
Such acts are nothing but counter-revolutionary, unpopular criminal acts of giving up the class struggle and paralyzing the function of popular democratic dictatorship, yielding to the offensive of the hostile forces to stifle the DPRK.

Jang seriously obstructed the nation’s economic affairs and the improvement of the standard of people’s living in violation of the pivot-to-the-Cabinet principle and the Cabinet responsibility principle laid down by the WPK.

The Jang group put under its control the fields and units which play an important role in the nation’s economic development and the improvement of people’s living in a crafty manner, making it impossible for the economic guidance organs including the Cabinet to perform their roles.

By throwing the state financial management system into confusion and committing such act of treachery as selling off precious resources of the country at cheap prices, the group made it impossible to carry out the behests of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on developing the industries of Juche iron, Juche fertilizer and Juche vinalon.

Affected by the capitalist way of living, Jang committed irregularities and corruption and led a dissolute and depraved life.

By abusing his power, he was engrossed in irregularities and corruption, had improper relations with several women and was wined and dined at back parlors of deluxe restaurants.

Ideologically sick and extremely idle and easy-going, he used drugs and squandered foreign currency at casinos while he was receiving medical treatment in a foreign country under the care of the party.
Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our party and revolution.

The ungrateful criminal acts perpetrated by the group of Jang Song Thaek are lashing our party members, service personnel of the People’s Army and people into great fury as it committed such crimes before they observed two-year mourning for Kim Jong Il, eternal general secretary of the WPK.
Speeches were made at the enlarged meeting.

Speakers bitterly criticized in unison the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts committed by the Jang group and expressed their firm resolution to remain true to the idea and leadership of Kim Jong Un and devotedly defend the Party Central Committee politically and ideologically and with lives.
The meeting adopted a decision of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee on relieving Jang of all posts, depriving him of all titles and expelling him and removing his name from the WPK.

The party served warning to Jang several times and dealt blows at him, watching his group’s anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts as it has been aware of them from long ago. But it did not pay heed to it but went beyond tolerance limit. That was why the party eliminated Jang and purged his group, unable to remain an onlooker to its acts any longer, dealing telling blows at sectarian acts manifested within the party.

Our party will never pardon anyone challenging its leadership and infringing upon the interests of the state and people in violation of the principle of the revolution, regardless of his or her position and merits.

No matter how mischievously a tiny handful of anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional elements may work, they can never shake the revolutionary faith of all party members, service personnel and people holding Kim Jong Un in high esteem as the unitary centre of unity and unitary centre of leadership.
The discovery and purge of the Jang group, a modern day faction and undesirable elements who happened to worm their ways into our party ranks, made our party and revolutionary ranks purer and helped consolidate our single-minded unity remarkably and advance more dynamically the revolutionary cause of Juche along the road of victory.

No force on earth can deter our party, army and people from dynamically advancing toward a final victory, single-mindedly united around Kim Jong Un under the uplifted banner of great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.

Theater veteran brings modern touch to pansori

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2977739
‘I’ve realized that pansori is our great asset, and there’s a reason our ancestors enjoyed it.’
By Park Sang-moon

Yun Ho-jin

Yun Ho-jin

“Seopyeonje,” a book written by the late novelist Lee Cheong-jun, centers around the sad and often tragic life of a family of traditional pansori singers, traveling the country after the 1950-53 Korean War and performing their music. It has been made into a film and a musical – but, ironically, never a changgeuk, a Korean opera performed with pansori-style narrative singing.

(The pansori has just one singer, but a changgeuk can have up to 30 actors.)

Perhaps this is because many Koreans do not have much respect for either the pansori or changgeuk, considering them boring and difficult music forms, that theater directors have been so hesitant.

But Yun Ho-jin, 64, who is often referred to as “the godfather” of Korean musicals, challenged this notion, choosing to modernize the changgeuk into something that might “appeal to both Korean and international audiences.”

“I’ve directed theater plays and musicals but never a changgeuk,” said Yun. “So I had to research and study a lot about pansori, and I realized that it has such great strengths and charms of its own. But the reason it has been neglected even by our own people is the way it’s been presented.

“Many Koreans, especially the young these days, are exposed to Western-style music. Our ears are accustomed to the sounds of Western instruments, so traditional music such as pansori becomes tedious to the modern ear. In such a situation, just tossing together something very traditional and asking Koreans to enjoy it just because it’s ours isn’t the way to preserve our culture. We must make it a little more appealing, a little more interesting, so that audiences naturally get attracted to it. Otherwise, it only sparks resistance.”

Yun is the head of Acom, a theatrical production company, and the dean of the Graduate School of Performing Arts at Hongik University. He started as an artistic director for plays and expanded into creating Korean musicals, including “The Last Empress,” “Wandeuk” and “Hero.”

Now he has turned “Seopyeonje” into a changgeuk, a feat that was picked to open this season at the National Theater of Korea. The play, which is performed by the National Changgeuk Company, kicked off at the National Theater last Friday and will run through Saturday.

“The performance had been staged in March, right after I finished directing President Park Geun-hye’s inauguration ceremony,” said Yun. “I was really busy back then, so I couldn’t entirely put my focus on the production, but it still managed to receive a great response from the audience.”

To hear more about Yun’s changgeuk version of “Seopyeonje,” the Korea JoongAng Daily sat down with him last week. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

A scene from Changgeuk Seopyeonje. Provided by the National Changgeuk Company

A scene from “Changgeuk Seopyeonje.” Provided by the National Changgeuk Company

Q. You never directed a changgeuk or studied pansori before. How did you accomplish this?

A. Back in 1972, I had a chance to listen to the entire rendition of a one-person pansori performance of “Simcheongga,” which lasted about four hours. Despite the length, I was really touched by the performance. That’s when I realized that pansori is our great asset. I thought to myself that the pansori “Simcheongga” would be interesting to watch as a changgeuk, because in pansori, only one person sings all the characters in a story. But because I am a theater director, I forgot about it and carried on with my own work. When Ahn Ho-sang became the president of the National Theater of Korea in 2012, I happened to say to him in passing that great literary works like “Seopyeonje” would be far more interesting as a changgeuk than a film or a musical. So when Kim Seong-nyeo became the artistic director of the National Changgeuk Company, she called me and said that she had heard from Ahn about my comments and asked if I could do it. I accepted, but I had a lot on my plate, including the preparation of President Park’s inauguration ceremony, so I barely managed to stage it in March.

As I didn’t know anything about pansori, I worked closely with the veteran pansori singer Ahn Sook-seon to create “Changgeuk Seopyeonje.”

What was the main focus for you in directing “Changgeuk Seopyeonje”?

I really put a lot of thought into how to approach the audience, who think of pansori and changgeuk as boring and difficult traditional performances. I wanted to create a changgeuk that’s enjoyable. That’s why I decided to use the pansori “Simcheongga” as the main source of this production. The story is ironic, because in the story of Simcheong, the devoted daughter Simcheong sacrifices her life to give her blind father his sight back; but, in “Seopyeonje,” the father Yu-bong, who is a pansori singer, makes his daughter go blind because he believes that the sound of pansori can be elevated to the highest standard only through han [the collective feeling of oppression and isolation]. So the two contrasting sentiments works well in “Changgeuk Seopyeonje.”

Veteran film director Im Kwon-taek first made “Seopyeonje” into a film in 1993, and it was also produced as a musical in 2002. Did you watch them?

I’ve watched the musical while it was being staged and the movie, I downloaded it only recently and watched it. But both of them, in my perspective, have a crucial point missing, which is explaining the real reason why the father blinds his daughter. It’s dealt with quite vaguely in both the film and the musical. In fact, it’s vague in the novel as well. But I believe, to appeal to the modern audience, the story has to be logical.

For example, it’s hard to believe that the father makes his daughter go blind just so that she gets a profound sense of han and becomes a true pansori singer. What’s the real motivation behind that? The daughter Song-hwa and her brother Dong-ho are half-brothers and sisters. They depend on each other as they travel around performing pansori, so it’s quite realistic for them to feel something more than sibling love. The father could’ve found out about this, misunderstood their closeness and imagined something worse. It’s like a folk tale, but I heard that such situations existed in the world of pansori singers, as they traveled a lot, always spending time with each other. When they perform, they unite and become one and sometimes moral and ethical thinking collapses and things happened. So such a “real motivation” can be analogized from their lifestyle. The father not only made his daughter go blind because he wanted his daughter to become the best pansori singer through deprivation, but also because of many other reasons. In the end, the performance finishes with the daughter and the father reconciling, as the father realizes that the height of pansori cannot be reached only through han.

You said you’ve added modern touches to changgeuk to appeal to the modern audiences of today. Have you always been so concerned about Korean traditional culture such as changgeuk and pansori being neglected?

I’ve realized that pansori is our great asset, and there’s a reason behind why our ancestors enjoyed it so much in the old days. I wanted more people, including young Koreans and even foreigners, to appreciate pansori – not because we have to, but because we want to.

For example, let’s say we want to globalize cheonggukjang [fermented soybean paste soup that has a strong smell]. We don’t want to just thrust it on young Koreans or foreigners. It needs to have a story. Why cheonggukjang should be enjoyed, or why it’s delicious. You have to make people interested in it and motivate them to try it. And for them to enjoy it, you could cook cheonggukjang in a different way, maybe less strong or mixing it with something else, so that it can be enjoyed more by them. It doesn’t make cheonggukjang a Western food. It’s still a Korean food. I believe traditional culture is the same. While I was studying in New York, I heard from Americans that they’ve heard and seen enough of Korean traditional performances like pansori, fan dances and samulnori. They wanted something more than just that, something that is traditional and that can touch their hearts at the same time. That’s why I worked with Korean-Japanese pianist Yang Bang-ean for “Changgeuk Seopyeonje,” to give a sprinkle of Western sound, of a piano on top of the traditional Korean sound of the pansori. It’s more familiar and easier to listen to for the modern ear.

You said you want to appeal to foreigners as well. Will you have subtitles for them to enjoy “Changgeuk Seopyeonje”?

Yes, subtitles are provided in Engish. I realized that foreigners can really appreciate Korean culture through the performing arts. When the Bond girl, Caterina Murino, visited Korea in 2006, I heard her say in a press conference that she watched my musical, “The Last Empress,” the night before because she had some free time. I always have English subtitles for all my productions, so the musical had it, too. She said that she was greatly touched by it and said that she didn’t know that Korea had such a great show like that. There was also this foreigner in Korea who was head of the Korean branch of a foreign stock company. After watching “The Last Empress,” he told me that he’s been living in Korea for about two and a half years, but the two-and-a-half hour show of “The Last Empress” taught him more about Korean culture than his stay in the country. The following year, when we staged the musical again, he visited again with his parents-in-law. So, yes, “Changgeuk Seopyeonje” has English subtitles. And I want to say to [potential audiences], no matter what you’ve heard about changgeuk and pansori – maybe that it’s boring or difficult – that this production will be different. So don’t miss it.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [sharon@joongang.co.kr]

Fun on the dark side

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/reviews/other_categories/article1279157.ece

AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER

Victor Cha
THE IMPOSSIBLE STATE
North Korea, past and future
530pp. Bodley Head. £25.
978 1 84792 235 9

John Everard
ONLY BEAUTIFUL, PLEASE
A British diplomat in North Korea
260pp. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Paperback, £12.99 (US $18.95).
978 1 931368 25 4

Blaine Harden
ESCAPE FROM CAMP 14
One man’s remarkable odyssey From North Korea to freedom in the West
242pp. Pan Macmillan. Paperback, £8.99.
978 0 330 51954 0 US: Penguin. $15.978 0 14 312291 3

Johannes Schonherr
NORTH KOREAN CINEMA
A history
215pp. McFarland. Paperback, £63.50 (US $75).
978 0 7864 6526 2

Andrei Lankov
THE REAL NORTH KOREA
Life and politics in the failed Stalinist utopia
283pp. Oxford University Press. £16.99 (US $27.95).
978 019 996429 1

A now familiar satellite image shows the Korean peninsula at night. The South is ablaze with light, as are nearby Japan and China. The North, by contrast, is plunged in darkness but for a single blob: the capital Pyongyang, its monuments more brightly lit than residents’ homes, (North Korea has other large cities, but they show up only as the faintest of pinpricks.) You can feel the metaphor coming. The government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, its official name) keeps its citizens in the dark, not just literally – electricity is in chronically short supply – but by blocking all influences from outside, including the internet. In the other direction it is a different picture. We know far more about North Korea than formerly, yet pools of dark ness remain. Politics is one such, not least the thirty something young man who now rules the DPRK, and who earlier this year was cheerfully threatening all and sundry with pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

Until a decade ago, Kim Jong Un was not even known to exist, despite years of schooling in Switzerland; were our spies asleep? Kim Jong 11, son and successor to the DPRK’s founding leader Kim II Sung, was thought to have two sons of his own. In 2003 a Japanese who calls himself Kenji Fujimoto published a memoir, claiming to have been Kim Jong Il’s sushi chef and con¬fidant for over a decade. His tales of court life in Pyongyang – nude dancing girls (no touching), dog soup on Sundays and more – included the first mention of a hitherto unknown third son, said to be hot-headed and his father’s favourite. Right on both counts, it appears.

Fujimoto feared for his life after these revelations. Yet last July he was invited back by Kim Jong Un, who seems to share his father’s view that there is no such thing as bad publicity. In 2001 Kim Jong II had told Konstantin Pulikovsky, sent by Vladimir Putin to escort him on a leisurely and luxurious journey to Moscow aboard Kim’s personal train: “I am the object of crit¬icism around the world. But I think that since I am being discussed, then I am on the right track”. Like Fujimoto, Pulikovsky spilled the beans. Live lobster was flown in daily as the caravan crossed Siberia. There were silver chopsticks, fine French wines, lusty choruses of old Soviet songs, and maidens “of the utmost beauty and intelligence” (clothed, indeed uniformed).

Pulikovsky’s account, Orient Express, remains untranslated. The same goes for Fujimoto, now with three books out, and the important memoirs of Song Hye Rang, aunt of Kim Jong IPs disinherited and off-message eldest son Kim Jong Nam: formerly of Macau, now in hiding. Even the gripping tale by South Korea’s Burton and Taylor, the film director Shin Sang Ok and his on- off spouse the actress Choi Eun Hee, of their 1978 kidnapping – or was it? – on Kim Jong Il’s orders, life in the North (from jail to pal¬ace) and escape in 1986, has never appeared in English.

This is surprising. Nowadays books on North Korea pour from the presses: written mostly by outsiders who have never lived there, and occasionally never even been there. In this inspect the light map of the peninsula is reversed. Oddly, there are far fewer non-specialist works on the South: a fascinating and dynamic land, much easier to visit and study. Daniel Tudor, the Economist’s Seoul correspondent, recently published the first general introduction to South Korea to appear for some time; calling it, somewhat unexpectedly, The Impossible Country.

In a coincidence both authors may regret, Victor Cha chose the same adjective for the other Korea, where it fits much better. An academic who served in George W. Bush’s White House, Cha has written what his publisher brashly bills as “the definitive account of North Korea”. There can be no such thing; but this is a serviceable intro¬duction, from a conventional US viewpoint, to the tangles of what an earlier age would have called “the Korean question”. It will disappoint those hoping for an inside view of the battles between hawks and doves that rent the Bush administration, undermining any coherent policy. Cha’s defensive account is less informative than works with no axe to grind, such as Mike Chinoy’s Meltdown (2008).

His virtues include a crisp chapter, “Five Bad Decisions”, on how the North’s economy lost its initial lead over the South (impossible to imagine now) and became today’s malnourished basket case. On policy, Cha rightly urges the need for the US and South Korea to coordinate their contingency planning with China. Beijing has not been keen, but this may change as it loses patience with Kim Jong Un’s antics. The final chapter, “The End Is Near”, predicts that the DPRK will collapse under the weight of its contradictions, and soon. Such forecasts have been heard for two decades, but North Korea has defied them thus far. If it survives till 2020, it will surpass the USSR as the longest-lived Communist (if that is the word) state. Its second hereditary succession looks smooth, yet in May a defence minister was replaced for the third time in a year. The armed forces thrived under Kim Jong II; his son and the Party are now reining them in. Ructions are possible, but Cha’s hopes for something akin to the Arab Spring in the DPRK seem optimistic.

Thousands of Westerners visit North Korea each year; a dozen firms compete to take them. (None pulled out during the recent tensions, though they had some cancellations.) Far fewer Westerners live there. Those who have written about the experi¬ence include two Englishmen, Andrew Hol¬loway and Michael Harrold, whose job was to correct the English in translations of works by the Leaders. Recently the Swiss Felix Abt self-published a book, available online, A Capitalist in North Korea, about his years in the country between 2002 and 2009. It would be good too to have the obser¬vations of aid workers, whom since 1995 North Korea has grudgingly let in, as it needs their help; but none so far seems to have gone into print.

John Everard wishes they would, so as “to correct the assertions of some who have writ¬ten at length and stridently … on the basis of very limited knowledge”. He himself spent two years (2006-08) in North Korea as Her Majesty’s Ambassador; previous postings had included inaugurating the Brit¬ish embassy in Belarus. UK-DPRK diplo¬matic relations date only from 2000, but already Britain has had six chefs de mission in Pyongyang. James Hoare opened the embassy, writing about this and more in North Korea in the 21st Century (2005, with Susan Pares). Now at SOAS, last year the tireless Dr Hoare produced both a historical dictionary of the DPRK and an edited three volume article collection on both Koreas.

As his evocative title suggests, Everard brings a keen ear and a fresh perspective to an often stale field. An eager cyclist, he could venture off the beaten track. Pedalling a scenic byway to the port of Nampo, “on my way back men appeared on bridges along my route telling me to take the main road”. (The plural suggests he ignored them.) He recounts some surprisingly frank conversations with North Koreans whose identity he rightly disguises, calling them all “she”, which adds a frisson; most were surely he. These were not the woman or man in the street but what he precisely pinpoints as “the outer elite”: those with “stable but not top-level jobs”.

In writers such as Abt, a laudable urge lo correct one-dimensional caricatures teeters into the trap of apologetics. This Everard avoids. With rare balance, he combines full awareness of the nuances and depth of the society with robust censure of the regime. Of course North Koreans are human beings, not robots; whoever denied it? But the DPRK is still a ghastly place nonpareil. He dedicates Only Beautiful, Please “to the people of North Korea, who deserve better”.

The heart of darkness is a vast gulag, where up to 200,000 innocents suffer unspeakably and often indefinitely. This used to be dark in another sense almost no details leaked out. Now the camps can be seen on Google Earth, and many reports have detailed their awful abuses. Some victims have written memoirs, the best-known being Kang Choi Hwan’s Aquariums of Pyongyang (2000). Kang was nine when his whole family was sent to Yodok camp after his grandfather, a Kyoto businessman who answered the fatherland’s call to build socialism – he even brought his Volvo – complained once too often. About 90,000 Koreans left Japan for North Korea, never to return; many were never heard of again. This thread in the DPRK tapestry of misery was the subject of Tessa Morris- Suzuki’s poignant Exodus to North Korea (2007).

Shin Dong Hyuk can trump Kang: he was born in the gulag. Near in age to Kim Jong Un, he recounts a Hobbesian life of constant, vicious, numbing cruelty. Shin even betrayed his own mother and brother for plotting to escape, and watched their executions. Almost as appalling is that few cared in South Korea, to which he miraculously escaped; his first book flopped. It look an American journalist, Blaine Harden, lo make Shin’s shocking story a global hit m twenty-four languages. All credit to him, though it seems strange not to credit Shin as co-author of Escape from Camp II: not even a “with”. The UN Human Rights Council recently set up a commission of inquiry into DPRK human rights abuses; it will report next March. No doubt the regime will continue brazenly to deny everything. For its interlocutors, the dilemma is what to prioritize. If the main task is to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities, human rights tend to be passed over.

Most North Koreans avoid the gulag, but all go to the movies: a softer form of social control. Kim Jong 11 was a film fanatic; his works include On the Art of the Cinema (1973). Aware that quality was poor, Kim drafted in the Southern director Shin Sang Ok to improve things. Johannes Schönherr, whose North Korean Cinema is the first book in English on its subject, doubts if Shin was kidnapped. Schönherr’s own journey has been picaresque. He is a former East German grave-digger, expelled from the GDR in 1983. His Trashfilm Roadshows (2002) was a romp through the transgressive or bizarre; its index has “Woman Warrior of Koryo” between “Whoregasm” and “Zombie Hunger”. Blagging his way to a film festival in Pyongyang, he found his true metier. Still freelance, he now lives in Japan. Full of stills (all in black and while). North Korean Cinema is eye opening and a word rarely used of the DPRK — fun. Unencumbered by theory, this is a rich narrative history from the 1940s in the present. North Korea’s latest films revert to pre-Shin leadenness: no match for the slickness of South Korean soaps and other foreign fare, which circulate widely on DVD or memory stick the latter easier to hide if the police call.

Such key social changes are well documented in The Real North Korea. Andrei Lankov is a phenomenon. Born in Leningrad, he studied in Pyongyang and is now a professor in Seoul. A historian who has used Soviet archives to write two books (so far) on the DPRK’s early political history, he is also a prolific commentator. Besides writing many an op-ed, he has two long-running columns in the Korea Times, on the dawn of modern Korea and on the North, each already anthologized in book form. Some of the thirteen boxes studding the text of this new book are from such columns, though that is not mentioned. This is the best all-round account of North Korea yet. Its many virtues include apt detail, dry wit, a sure analytical touch, and refusal to preach. Lankov is insightful too on the South, such as the contortions of its leftists. Still fixated on their own long gone dictators (pussycats compared to the Kims), some find virtue in the North: at least it hosts no foreign troops. Dividing a nation also twists minds.

What can be done? Hawks and doves both err. As Lankov puts it, the sticks are not big enough and the carrots not sweet enough. Engagement is better than sanctions for weakening the regime, but North Korea can last a while yet before the inevitable crisis. That could arise in several ways, but whatever happens a soft landing is “not very probable”. Not quite Hilaire Belloc’s “They answered as they look their fees, There is no cure for this disease”; but small comfort for ideologues, certain that being either tougher or kinder to Kim Jong Un will do the trick.

Ginseng, bear bile: NKoreans look to old cures

In this Feb. 21, 2013 photo, a pharmacist waits for customers at the Man Nyon Pharmacy, the nation's largest dispensary of traditional "Koryo" medicine, in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea began marrying traditional medicine with modern practice in the 1950s after the Korean War. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this Feb. 21, 2013 photo, a pharmacist waits for customers at the Man Nyon Pharmacy, the nation’s largest dispensary of traditional “Koryo” medicine, in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea began marrying traditional medicine with modern practice in the 1950s after the Korean War. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

The Associated Press http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/health/ginseng-bear-bile-nkoreans-look-to-old-cures/nXgpZ/

PYONGYANG, North Korea — The Man Nyon Pharmacy is lined with rows of colorful packages containing everything from dried bear bile and deer antler elixir to tiger bone paste and ginseng. But the ancient “Koryo” medicine provided at this popular dispensary isn’t just for minor aches and pains.

It has been integrated into the health system from the smallest village clinic all the way up to the nicest showcase hospitals in the privileged capital of Pyongyang. Both modern and traditional styles of healing have long been uniquely intertwined nationwide with doctors from both schools working in tandem under one roof.

North Korean physicians say many patients prefer traditional medicine to the Western kind, but it’s difficult to determine the true situation in this closed and impoverished society where access is limited. Defectors, foreign aid workers and North Koreans agree that many Western drugs are scarce and say villagers still forage for plants in some areas to make their own herbal concoctions.
With the U.N. Security Council imposing its toughest-ever sanctions following North Korea’s third nuclear test in February, patients may become even more dependent on these home-grown remedies in a country of 24 million people where government health spending ranks among the world’s lowest.

“Doctors are more interested in Koryo medicine rather than Western medicine because they can get it more easily,” said Ri Hye Yong, who manages the frigid concrete pharmacy opened by the government nearly three decades ago. “It’s much cheaper.”

The latest restrictions are meant to squeeze new young leader Kim Jong Un and the ruling class by clamping down on access to foreign travel and luxury goods. North Korea has responded with tirades that include threatening nuclear attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

The resolution is not supposed to block donor aid to those who need it most, including the two-thirds of the population who don’t have enough to eat. But foreign aid workers say years of limitations have created a maze of red tape and approvals needed to ship in medical supplies and equipment. Some countries refuse to process payments for anything involving North Korea because of restrictions placed on banks, while some foreign companies and organizations simply do not want to be involved once they learn where the materials are headed. But once the goods arrive, they say the process becomes fairly simple.
“Even though the imposed sanctions clearly exclude humanitarian assistance, a negative impact on the levels of humanitarian funding has been experienced,” the U.N. Resident Coordinator’s Office in Pyongyang said in a statement April 29, adding nearly three-quarters of the $147 million needed this year has not been received.

The World Health Organization is lacking an estimated 60 percent of the drugs it needs for at-risk kids and pregnant women, while the U.N. Children’s Fund is struggling to get vaccines and medicines to prevent the biggest killer diseases among children, it said.

In addition, the WHO says the process of importing essential equipment and medicine has also grown lengthy at all levels, and those involved have become over cautious in clearing materials to ensure they could not be classified as dual purpose or luxurious items.

International efforts to help boost the country’s ability to produce its own vaccines and medicines were earlier affected when some technology and seed microbes were halted over concerns they could potentially be used by Pyongyang for malicious purposes, WHO said.

Despite these challenges, it’s difficult to understand the full picture within North Korea where outsiders are banned from traveling freely and data are lacking or unreliable. Suspicion of the outside world is reinforced by huge hospital propaganda paintings depicting Americans and Japanese as the country’s “sworn enemies.”

Jang Jun Sang, a department director at the Ministry of Public Health, said in an interview in February that sanctions have cut imports of medical equipment and supplies.

But he said North Korea was used to sanctions. “If we receive medical aid, that’s good,” he said. “But if we don’t, that’s fine, too. We’re not worried.”
North Korean factories have limited ability to produce pharmaceuticals, and many rural clinics lack electricity, running water and heating. By the government’s own account, more than 80 percent of village clinics suffer from “chronic shortages of medicines and supplies at all levels of the system.”

According to defectors such as Kwon Hyo-jin, some drugs are smuggled in from neighboring China and marketed while others are taken from hospitals and sold illegally. All health care is supposed to be free in North Korea.

Kwon said he was forced to buy an IV drip as well as antibiotics, painkillers, and other Western medicines from China after suffering bouts of food poisoning and later while hospitalized with a broken leg in 1997 in the northeastern city of Chongjin. He recalled a hospital bed swarming with lice and a tap that spewed muddy water and worms.

The 52-year-old, who defected to South Korea in 2009 and now works at the Seoul-based Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, said he tried to avoid hospitals in the North altogether. Instead, he visited Koryo doctors usually for upset stomach, back pain and insomnia.

Traditional medicine is cheaper and easier to find. Walls of tiny wooden drawers similar to a library card catalog fill one vast room at Pyongyang Medical College, each containing hundreds of tiny paper triangles stuffed with dried herbs.

“I think Koryo medicine has mysterious characteristics,” said Dr. Ryu Hwan Su, the hospital’s deputy chief, who proudly displayed a jar filled with a fat ginseng root believed to be more than a century old. “It heals illnesses that Western medicines can’t treat.”

Traditional medicine is used widely in many Asian countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, where there is no shortage of modern treatment and equipment. And while scientific research regarding the benefits of some age-old treatments is lacking, therapies such as massage and acupuncture — which can also serve as a local anesthetic — are now widely used in the West.

Some North Korean clinics have their own greenhouses, and herbs are harvested every year in the wild to be processed into teas and other concoctions. The government says Koryo medicine is used to treat more than half the patients in rural clinics. But shortages exist too.

Patients are often prescribed a simple herb they are expected to get themselves, said Dr. Byungmook Lim, a professor at South Korea’s Pusan National University School of Korean Medicine, who co-authored a study comparing traditional medicine in the two Koreas.

The country began marrying traditional medicine with modern practice in the 1950s after the Korean War. Doctors were given training in Koryo medicine and each hospital was set up with a department devoted to it, with prevention as the guiding concept behind the socialized health plan. Unlike in other Asian countries where the two practices are typically kept separate, traditional practitioners in North Korea can prescribe modern drugs and assist during surgeries, while Western doctors can use Koryo treatments.

“We kept talking to each other and consulting each other,” said Kim Jie-eun, who graduated from a Koryo school with some modern training, and practiced in North Korea as a pediatrician and internal medicine doctor before defecting in 1999. She now runs a traditional clinic in Bucheon, South Korea, and recalls that even acupuncture needles were reused in the North. She said frequent shortages of antibiotics meant high-level officials got treated first, while ordinary patients struggled to find medicines.

“I was really angry. They were the same human beings,” she said. “How this could happen?”

But she believes combining the two types of treatment was actually better for patients. She said Koryo medicine — taken from the old name for Korea — was often used alone or in combination with Western drugs to treat a variety of health problems including stroke, hepatitis, high blood pressure, kidney disorders and diabetes.

And it’s still done today. At the new Breast Cancer Research Center at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, a showcase institution where The Associated Press was recently taken on a tour, patient Ri Jong Suk said she was set to be released after having a mastectomy and reconstruction surgery.

She said during her one-month stay she was given Western medicine along with Koryo treatment, including massage and acupuncture, to help strengthen her immune system, decrease swelling and circulate blood after surgery. The Health Ministry also cites hot springs, mineral water and mud among successful treatments. Cupping is another popular therapy believed to stimulate blood flow by using heated glass jars to create a vacuum on the skin.

Many of these healing techniques are also commonly used in South Korea, which is rooted in the same ancient traditional medicine as its northern counterpart. But in that country, modern and traditional medicines typically operate independently, each with its own licensing and education system.

North Korea was once dependent on the Soviet Union to keep its medical system running. But after the collapse of its patron, economic crisis and famine followed in the 1990s and Pyongyang became increasingly isolated amid growing nuclear ambitions.

The government spent nearly $9 billion on defense in 2009, according to the South Korean state-run Korea Institute of Defense Analyses. Pyongyang says it spends $900 million a year on health, but one WHO estimate put government spending at less than $1 per person in 2006. That’s less than $25 million and among the world’s lowest, though other reports have placed it higher.

Outside the capital, donors provide some 70 percent of the most needed drugs, which are believed to reach less than half of those in need, according to the WHO.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has accused North Korea of manufacturing and trafficking illegal drugs, such as opium and methamphetamine. It also believes the government is likely involved in peddling fake Western pills, such as Viagra.
Koryo medicine was thrust into the international spotlight when five members of the North Korean female soccer team tested positive for steroids at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany.

North Korean officials said the players took traditional musk deer gland as therapy after they were struck by lightning during training. Soccer authorities said they had never seen the substance found in the women’s systems, and the squad was sent home in disgrace.

Animal products are a major part of Koryo medicine, along with various traditional healing used in other Asian countries. Deer antler is used to strengthen the immune system, tiger bone to relieve fevers, and bear bile mixed into hot water and sipped to relieve pain and remove toxins. Some concoctions are believed to enhance virility.

Some Asian countries ban bear bile because the method of extraction is considered inhumane. Asked where North Korea gets its bile, pharmacist Ri said it came from the zoo where about 50 bears are housed. AP couldn’t verify this practice and spotted only one bear inside an enclosure at the national zoo in Pyongyang.

“Koryo medicine seems to have somehow served the population, which is in desperate need of treatment amid difficulties in health, while the Western health delivery system has been badly affected,” Lim, the South Korean professor, and colleagues wrote in the 2009 paper published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. It was based on a review of North Korean textbooks and medical journals as well as interviews with defectors who had studied the practice.

Still, much remains a mystery. North Korea’s isolation means little has been published on Koryo medicine or its integration with modern techniques, leaving safety and efficacy concerns largely unanswered.

But some say being cut off from the outside world for so long may have led to the discovery of valid remedies. The Chinese found a vital malaria treatment in a ragweed-like plant nearly four decades ago at a time when it had minimal contact with the West.

“They are somehow surviving through such harsh conditions,” said Dr. Jongbae Park, director of Asian medicine and acupuncture research at the University of North Carolina, who co-authored the Koryo medicine study.

“A lot of new ideas and new findings are coming from desperate efforts through challenges, so I am rather hoping that they would have reserved a new finding that the outside world cannot think of, particularly in coping with the main diseases.”
____
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
____
Follow Asia Medical Writer Margie Mason on Twitter: twitter.com/MargieMasonAP
Copyright The Associated Press

North Korean ‘court poet’ to publish memoir

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/01/jang-jin-sung-north-korea-insider-memoir

He’s seen Kim Jong-il cry – Jang Jin-sung’s story of life inside the totalitarian state’s propaganda machine could be electric

By Daniel Kalder

North Korean poet Jang Jin-sung, speaking at London's Poetry Parnassus. Photograph: Sylvia Hui/Associated Press

North Korean poet Jang Jin-sung, speaking at London’s Poetry Parnassus. Photograph: Sylvia Hui/Associated Press

Each London Book Fair brings breathless announcements of mega deals and amazing new books – although how many live up to expectations is another matter. This year however a news item appeared that sounds like a genuine event. Rider Publishing, an imprint of Ebury at Random House, acquired rights to Crossing the Border, a memoir by Jang Jin-sung – former “court poet” to Kim Jong-il, and will publish next spring.

Of course, North Korea is hot right now, courtesy of Kim Jong-un’s statements about nuclear war. Indeed, Adam Johnson can probably thank Kim for the Pulitzer he won for his North Korea-set novel The Orphan Master’s Son. Meanwhile, BBC reporter John Sweeney – not content with clashing with the LSE with his documentary on the hermit kingdom – has also written a (not yet published) book, Zombie Nation. Both authors made precisely one trip each to the country.

Of accounts of North Korea written by North Koreans, Kang Chol-hwan’s The Aquariums of Pyongyang is probably the most famous. A harrowing description of 10 years in a prison camp, it is a North Korean equivalent to the works of Solzhenitsyn or Varlam Shalamov. But Jang Jin-sung’s book is something even rarer – an exposé of the workings of a totalitarian state by a member of its inner circle.

According to his agent, Marysia Juszczakiewicz, Jang Jin-sung escaped North Korea in 2004, crossing the Tumen River into China. Following his arrival in South Korea, Jang worked in the National Security Research Institute and published his first book of poetry, I Am Selling My Daughter For 100 Won, which details the horror of life in North Korea; it sold more than 80,000 copies. Today he is editor-in-chief of New Focus, “the leading website on North Korea by north Koreans in exile” .

Before all that, however, he led a very different life. Says Juszczakiewicz: “Jang was born into a bloodline of impeccable revolutionary credentials, he trained as a classical pianist before studying literature at Kim Il-sung University. He went on to join the Central Committee of the North Korean Writers’ Union and worked in the Ministry of Reunification, where he was responsible for creating and disseminating propaganda throughout both North and South Korea. During one period, he helped develop the founding myth of North Korea as having begun on 15 April, 1912, with the sinking of the Titanic in the west and the rising of the sun – Kim Il-sung – in the east.”

Jang was so trusted that he met Kim Jong-il twice. The first time, Jang explained in an interview with the BBC last January, “I was overwhelmed and full of emotion. But at the same time I thought the image I had received of him – through brainwashing – was very different to how he appeared in person.” Kim gave the poet an gold Rolex worth $11,000 (£7,000) and granted him the “sacred immunity” that only the microscopic minority who spent 20 minutes in the presence of the god-dictator received. Now Jang could not be prosecuted without special permission from on high. At the second meeting, “We sat at a performance together, and he kept on crying while he watched it. I felt his tears represented his yearning to become a human being, to become an ordinary person.”

Jang could not reconcile his lifestyle with the suffering he saw around him. He wrote poetry critical of the regime while circulating banned South Korean books. Soon he was obliged to flee.

Jang views his memoir as a weapon against tyranny. He met his translator Shirley Lee last year at the Poetry Parnassus at the Olympics, and says: “The London Olympics was the turning point for me of looking internationally and of the power of literature to tell the truth. NK (sic) may have nuclear weapons, but we have the media.”

Lee stresses the literary quality of Crossing the Border and insists that, his training in propaganda notwithstanding, Jang is a real poet: “The original Korean book is titled ‘Crossing the river with poetry in my heart’ – Jang escaped with no possessions but the manuscript of his poetry collection depicting life in North Korea. In this way, his poems are the memories he brought with him out of the country. They are the record of reality through the individual’s eyes, written in a country where no record of reality may be made except through the ruling party’s eyes. Parts of the book are a rendition in prose of snapshots he captured with his poetry in North Korea; if the poetry is snapshots, the memoir is a movie.”