[KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

Dear friends and colleagues,
 
Scott raises the question of native speakers of English  (etc)
as copy-editors - also known as 'polishers' - in North  Korea.
 
Having in the past recruited at least two people for such  roles
- Michael Harrold, and the late Andrew Holloway 
_http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang.html_ (http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang.html) 
- this is a topic about which I'm curious, but not  up-to-date.
 
Michael, Andrew and others were hired by the DPRK
Foreign Languages Publishing House (FLPH).  The texts
they worked on were mostly books, as best I  recall.
 
By contrast, I've never heard of KCNA using  foreigners.
My guess would be that they don't, given some  stilted
expressions and the odd mistake.
 
For example, surely if a native English speaker  were
involved they would have recommended a different  word
- be it technical or colloquial - for "bottom hole" in  the 
third sentence of the caption to the  cartoon below.
 
There are other linguistic infelicities here as  well,
not least the title. Either tear apart or tear to  pieces,
but not tear apart to pieces.
 
(On the substance: In my article I likened  doing the research
for this to wading through sewage. You can see  why.)
 
- But back to polishers. FLPH still uses at least one, but he 
lives in Beijing. See an interesting interview with  Paul White
at Tad Farrell's ever more indispensable  NKNews:
_http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/_ 
(http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/) 
 
Kind regards
Aidan FC
 
 
Aidan  Foster-Carter 
Honorary Senior Research  Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds 
University, UK 
E: _afostercarter at aol.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at aol.com)      
_afostercarter at yahoo.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at yahoo.com)    W: _www.aidanfc.net_ 
(http://www.aidanfc.net/)      
************** 

>From _http://www.kcna.kp/2mb/eindex.html_ 
(http://www.kcna.kp/2mb/eindex.html)  (cartoon  5)
 

Tear Apart Lee Myung Bak to  Pieces
The dirty hairy body of  rat-like Myung Bak is being stabbed with bayonets. 
One is right in his neck and  the heart has already burst open. Blood is 
flowing out of its filthy bottom  hole. This is not too much to Lee as he 
committed only sordid acts of flunkeyism  and treachery. And this is not all. It 
is the strong will and pledge of the army  and people of the DPRK to tear 
apart Lee Myung Bak to  pieces.
 
_______________
 
In a message dated 5/20/2012 11:27:17 GMT Daylight Time,  
jsburgeson at yahoo.com writes:

Thanks for the great article, Aiden! Did you have to put  bandaids on your 
eye-balls after reading so much slashing, violent  fulmination?  


Any chance you can dig up photos of some of the foreign devils who  
copy-edited this stuff in English? One wonders if they have PTSD by now;  hopefully 
they were sharp enough to ask in advance to be paid in  soju!




--- On Fri, 5/18/12, Aidan Foster-Carter  <afostercarter at aol.com> wrote:


From:  Aidan Foster-Carter <afostercarter at aol.com>
Subject: [KS] (no  subject)
To: Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Friday, May 18,  2012, 9:56 AM


Dear friends and colleagues,
 
Just to let you know that the new issue of Comparative  Connections
- the thrice-yearly online journal published by Pacific  Forum-CSIS -
includes what I think is the first full account and detailed  analysis
in English of North  Korea's ongoing bloodthirsty fulminations
against South Korea and especially its  President, Lee Myung-bak.
 
 
In over 40 years of following North Korea, I've read  tons of rich
DPRK invective - but never anything as bizarre and  nasty as this.

(They don't much care for Park Geun-hye, either; for all  that she
dined with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang less than a decade  ago.)
 
In case of interest, this article is freely available to all  at
_http://csis.org/files/publication/1201qnk_sk.pdf_ 
(http://csis.org/files/publication/1201qnk_sk.pdf) 
The full issue, which as ever also has three further articles  on Korea
covering the two Koreas' relations with the US, China  and Japan,
can be accessed at _http://csis.org/program/comparative-connections_ 
(http://csis.org/program/comparative-connections) 
 
All good wishes
Aidan FC
 
 
Aidan  Foster-Carter
Honorary  Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds  
University, UK
 
E: _afostercarter at aol.com_ 
(mip://05ca8438/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@aol.com)      _afostercarter at yahoo.com_ 
(mip://05ca8438/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@yahoo.com)    W: _www.aidanfc.net_ (http://www.aidanfc.net/)    

 
 






 
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