[KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang

Sun May 20 16:18:24 EDT 2012

I agree that KCNA did not seem to use polishers, The FLPH laid off the remaining foreign staff while we were there in 2001-02 and thereafter seemed to relay on Koreans - no doubt this explains the odd language.
But even when they did employ foreign staff, the Korean staff would often override what the native speakers had suggested.
On a slightly different note, what use would one make of photographs of such people if one had them? 
Jim Hoare

-----Original Message-----
From: Afostercarter <Afostercarter at aol.com>
To: koreanstudies <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
CC: jsburgeson <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>
Sent: Sun, 20 May 2012 18:34
Subject: Re: [KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang

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
- 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/

Kind regards
Aidan FC

Aidan Foster-Carter
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com     afostercarter at yahoo.com   W: www.aidanfc.net    

**************

>From 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

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

All good wishes

Aidan FC

Aidan           Foster-Carter

Honorary           Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds           University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com     afostercarter at yahoo.com   W: www.aidanfc.net   

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