[KS] Striking photographs of the DPRK from AP's David Guttenfelder, in The Atlantic

[Ruediger Frank]

Dear Charles,
well spoken. You and I and others have been making this point (recognition of commonality) for years - to no avail, I'm afraid. Even liberal economists turn into pigheaded central planners with no trust in the forces of the market whatsoever when it comes to North Korea policy. 
I would like to add that this treatment of North Korea as an extraordinary case is even more than just annoying for the experts. It is the root cause for a number of policy failures that we have observed in the past years, having allowed the tail to wag the dog. Treating NK as a normal state is, I believe, the key to finding more sustainable solutions to issues such as human rights, famine, or the nuclear threat. Unfortunately, this demand is often misunderstood as appeasement, even though in fact it means quite the opposite. The previously mentioned NK arts exhibition in Vienna was a case in point.
Having said that, we should also be realistic. Although we tend to look down upon stereotypes, in the end our own life, too, would be pretty complicated without them. This is even more the case for those (large) parts of the population whose general level of education about international affairs is often very shallow. This is when stereotypes of the crudest type replace knowledge. It is no surprise then that a country as remote and admittedly different as NK arouses such a curiosity. This is not without effects - think of Team America (ronery, I am so ronery), James Bond (Die Another Day - we watched this in Washington together, you remember?) or a recent computer game (Homefront). On the top of my list is still that T-shirt with a Kim Jong Il image (hanging right next to one of Che Guevara) I found in a shop in, of all places, Athens/Georgia a few years ago. Serving strong stereotypes is a viable business model. This is true for journalists and sometimes even for scholars. Look at the exponentially growing number of NK "experts". It is a simple instance of supply reacting to demand. Well, so what: our societies are built upon that principle, aren't they?
Finally, we need to understand that this exoticization of NK itself is anything but a unique phenomenon. It is actually just another extreme expression of what Edward Said has so vividly described - Orientalism. When I recently read his book again I sometimes almost forgot that it was not about North Korea.
So I guess for the time being we have to live with all those little Columbuses, while we are trying to provide a counterbalance by spreading our own, hopefully better results and insights. 
All the best,
Rudiger
PS: You will like this (NY Times: The Black Hole of North Korea): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/opinion/09iht-edfish09.html



on Montag, 8. August 2011 at 15:42 you wrote:

> Dear Ruediger and all,

> I would like to expand a bit on my brief comments last week. They were
> not meant as a criticism of Aidan's taste or the perfectly fine photos
> in the Atlantic. What troubles me, however, it the continued  
> exoticization of North Korea in the Western (particularly, perhaps,  
> American) media that the article reflects. After all, it is unlikely  
> that there would be a major spread in a leading American journal of  
> equally fine photos of, say, Canada or France -- or South Korea for  
> that matter. These images of North Korea warrant such attention  
> because North Korea is supposedly so isolated, inaccessible, and alien
> that any representation other than the usual stock images is greeted  
> with astonishment (not by members of this listserve, of course, but  
> the general reading public). Anything that goes beyond the narrow  
> standard narrative of military threat, starvation and gulags is  
> jarring to an American media audience. This is not to say these things
> don't exist -- they certainly do -- but obviously that's not all there
> is, and I am dismayed that the evidence that everyday life exists in  
> North Korea is treated in this country as a journalistic discovery. My
> hope is that someday North Korea will be treated as an ordinary  
> country. "Ordinary" here is not meant as a value judgment, as there is
> obviously plenty to criticize about the DPRK. Rather, I simply mean  
> that one would never guess from most media representations of the  
> place (at least in this country) that North Korea occupies the same  
> planet that we do, and that it is populated by human beings with the  
> same needs, desires, and general level of intelligence as people  
> anywhere else. It seems to me that any useful criticism has to begin  
> with this recognition of commonality, rather that the idea of North  
> Korea as an unknowable Other.

> best,

> Charles

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