[KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang

[Kent Davy]

Here's an interview with Paul White:


http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/



On May 21, 2012, at 5:18 AM, jimhoare64 at aol.co.uk wrote:

> 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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