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<P>To the original question, actually South Korea's National Intelligence Service webpage, <A href="http://eng.nis.go.kr/">http://eng.nis.go.kr/</A> has some historical information on this. Particularly interesting perhaps for a film is the story they have about the spy posing as a Lebanese - Philipino and teaching Islam in Seoul. Or a follow-up to see what has happened to the guy. </P>
<P>Also, Andrei Lankov now at Kookmin U. writes extensively on these issues--maybe he is on our list. You can google him and see lots of articles. Here is one. </P>
<P><A href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GB26Dg01.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GB26Dg01.html</A></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New">Amazing. Why is it not ok to do film on spy stuff? Is NK music "culture" all there is? </FONT></P>
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<DIV></DIV>From: <I>Frank Hoffmann <frank@koreaweb.ws></I><BR>Reply-To: <I>Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws></I><BR>To: <I>Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws></I><BR>Subject: <I>Re: [KS] spies and thrillers</I><BR>Date: <I>Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:02:12 -0800</I><BR>(cont.)<BR><BR>Allow me to give you two examples.<BR><BR>Example (A):<BR>Professor Keith Howard's presentations and publications on music from/in North Korea: While he is in every case very aware of the political circumstances and while he includes this in his analysis, he still focuses on music. We learn something about music, on particular connections and developments within the political context, but also beyond a political context. In every talk I heard by him I always understood that there were actual
people out there doing this, and that neither the music nor the people could be completely "explained" purely in terms of political or economic contexts. We can learn much more about a culture by looking at one cultural or artistic work (and after that another and another) than by reading or writing 20 more books on how the prison camp system or the spy network is organized or how exactly the ranking within the party has shifted.<BR><BR>A somewhat different example (B):<BR>In October last year the Museum of East Asian Art and the Free University of Berlin held a symposium on Koguryô murals that went hand in hand with an exhibition on the same topic.<BR>Professor Rocco Mazz of Bologna University is the scholar leading UNESCO's project for the protection and possible partial restoration of Koguryô tombs in both NE China and northern Korea. This talk on mural paintings was so fascinating
because his research was purely based on "hard sciences" like chemistry and physics. He was thereby able to "discharge" a whole area of art historical scholarship that is mostly based on iconographic analysis à la Gombrich and texts, and texts about texts. My point here is not if Professor Mazz is right or wrong in his final statements, but the fact that he is looking at one specific area (the dating of Koguryô murals) using latest technology and testing methods, a rigid approach that does not start with all the pre-conceptions and nationalist agendas art historians, historians, and Korean studies country specialist have to deal with -- with underlaying questions about national identity (Korean vs. Chinese). In this case, in this example, a scholar, was able to give some very important input exactly because there was no embedding process of his particular work into the shared cultural
assumptions about Koguryô culture and dating and its relationship to China.<BR><BR>I doubt that more summaries of the political and economic situation in North Korea, another set of books that all cover very similar and overlapping areas starting from the P'yôngyang subway system to Kim Il Sung / Kim Il Jong cult do help anyone to better understand North Korea. What I have seen is that a single talk about one work of art or music does this job much better, even if just a technical analysis. All the political analysis and the institutions that created them did not help West Germany (or its big brother) to even remotely forecast the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, nor did it help the regime in East German (or its big brother) to stay in power. But the ongoing exchange of culture, information, and education between the two states -- the case by case exchanges of goods and knowledge (that
had never really been interrupted) sure helped to avoid any sort of violence when the Wall fell. These allowed for a basic understanding that was most certainly not due to books on political analysis of systems.<BR><BR>Frank<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>--<BR>--------------------------------------<BR>Frank Hoffmann<BR>http://koreaweb.ws<BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></div></html>