7 2
July-August 2018
INTERNATIONAL
T
HE PEOPLE’S Democratic Republic
of Korea, DPRK, is almost totally
isolated from the outside world. A
few tourists are allowed in, but
only under the control of trained
guides; and very few locals are allowed out.
I had nine days: five in the countryside,
three in the capital, and one to the de-mili-
tarised zone, DMZ. Tourist accommodation
in the countryside is adequate, in the capi-
tal strangely luxurious, but the experience
was stilted as I was not allowed to wander
into the surrounding streets. Indeed, contact
with the locals was restricted to just a few
far-too-brief encounters with some English-
language students. Conversations on
sensitive topics like governance were diffi-
cult; and on serious questions like labour
camps, where about 20,000 are still held –
muc h redu ced f rom ear li er y ears – imp ossi ble.
Photography was also subject to fairly rig-
orous conditions.
Under Kim Il-sung, granddad, (1948-94).
Kim Jong-il, dad, (1994-2011) and Kim Jong-
un, son, (2011-), North Korea has been run
as a “socialist monarchy” where the leaders
are almost deified, adulated with ubiquitous
use of words like ‘supreme’ and ‘eternal’.
There are over 35,000 monuments devoted
to the two deceased leaders, and their pho-
tographs hang in every home. And just as
you shouldn’t lounge around in a cathedral
at home in Ireland, both locals and visitors
in North Korea are expected to pay their
respects to these statues: no hats, no sun-
glasses, bow from the waist, and so on.
The Korean peninsula was first united in
the year 918 when the wars between various
rivals finally came to an end. It was then
frequently invaded from West and East by
China and Japan, and in 1910 it became a
colony of the latter. At the end of WWII and
the beginning of the Cold War, the USSR and
USA occupied the North and South respec-
tively, with the demarcation line – the 38th
parallel – concocted by two Americans and
no Koreans of either ilk.
The locals get a different story: Kim Il-
sung first led his guerrillas to defeat the
Japanese, they are told, though actually he
was inconveniently and unhelpfully in the
Soviet Union for most of the war, and no
mention is made of the significant role of
the Allies and the Pacific War, let alone Hiro-
shima and Nagasaki.
Kim was a Soviet puppet, and he took over
the North in 1948, one month af ter his oppo-
site number, Syngman Rhee, returned from
exile in the US to take power in the South;
whereupon the occupying forces, both
Soviet and American, went home. One year
later, Máo Zédōng won the civil war in China
and Chiang Kai-shek took over in Taiwan,
both establishing one-party states (the
latter adopted a multi-party structure only
in 1987). Then, in 1950, North Korea overran
the South, so the mainly American UN forces
invaded and occupied the whole peninsula,
until 200,000 Chinese ‘volunteers’ drove
them back to the pre-war status quo.
Again, the locals get a dif ferent stor y. Kim
Il-sung defeated the American invaders,
apparently, and there is little mention of the
USSR, which at the time was boycotting the
UN and only supplied a few armaments, and
hardly any acknowledgement given to the
decisive contribution of the Chinese.
{There again, we get historical distor tions
as well. Britain, we are told, stood alone
against the forces of fascism in 1939
whereas, of course, two years earlier, China
had been left by itself when the Japanese
invaded from Manchuria.}
Initially, with a policy of economic self-
reliance, North Korea did fairly well and
rather better than the South. But then came
by Peter Emerson
Pnonyang days
Our man in North Korea is now home
the image
‘Conversations on sensitive
topics were difficult; and on
serious questions like labour
camps, where about 20,000 are
still held, impossible’
July-August 2018
7 3
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, so
no more aid from there; a horrible man-
made f amine – echoes of China’s Great Leap
Forward and the USSR’s collectivisation –
with an estimated toll of up to a million; and
the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994. Meanwhile,
the South became one of the Asian ‘tiger’
economies, spawning Samsung, Hyundai and
so on.
But back to the North, and today, as so
often happens in developing countries of
whatever leaning, there is poverty in the
countryside, with planting on the collective
farms often done by hand and ploughing by
the ox; while the capital Pyongyang boasts
some huge white elephants – one 100-storey
hotel is empty and unused – and there is
even a parliament, a mighty edifice to house
the 675 deputies who are elected by univer-
sal suf f rage… with candidates chosen by the
government and a ballot paper which asks
“yes or no?” – {a bit like Brexit, really}. It is,
however, the ultimate rubber stamp: as per
Article 92 of the Socialist Constitution, it
meets but once or twice a year.
At the same time, a high percentage of the
budget is spent on the military. In 2011, Kim
Jong-il, who had initiated the policy of ‘mili-
tary first’, died, and his second son, who
had been educated in Switzerland and was
then just 28 years old, took over. Which
brings us to today, and local politics are
changing…maybe. Ordinary folk are genu-
inely excited about what the June 12 talks
in Singapore between Kim Jong-un and
Donald Trump might eventually lead to, but,
for the moment at least, literally everything
is in the hands of the ‘Supreme Leader ’. This
excitement, by the way, is shared by the
large number of Koreans living over the
border in China, as well as by many
Chinese.
The problems are huge, of course, and
much bigger than their equivalents were in
the two ‘halves’ in Germany. Nevertheless,
from Pyongyang’s point of view, Kim Jong-
un is on a winner: things can only get better.
The nuclear policy means that now, even if
it were to disarm, North Korea would (prob-
ably) not suffer the fate of Iraq or Libya.
Instead, if all goes to plan, the sanctions will
be lifted, foreign investment will be allowed
in – which probably means opening up
access to the internet etc. – and the DPRK’s
economy will start to catch up with that of
the South. Later, in 2028 or thereabouts, the
currencies – both are called the won – will
be combined. While politically, the two
countries could form a federation, the
Nor th’s suggestion, or Seoul’s idea of a com-
monwealth… so it should be possible to find
a compromise between those two
proposals.
And democracy? Well South Korea did not
have a smooth transition. President Rhee,
who once “locked up members of the
National Assembly until they voted as he
desired,”, was followed by one coup d’état
and two assassinations; today, however,
Seoul is relatively stable.
But the problems faced by the Korean pen-
insula as a whole require a more inclusive
and sophisticated form of decision-making;
if they do adopt a binary structure, even a
consociational one like the Belfast model,
they could well perpetuate the north-south
divide.
Peter Emerson is the director of The de
Borda Institute (http://www.deborda.org/),
a Northern Ireland-based NGO, which aims
to promote the use of inclusive voting pro-
cedures on all contentious questions of
social choice.
the reality
the dynasty
In 1950 North Korea
overran the South, so
the mainly American
UN forces invaded
and occupied the
whole peninsula, until
200,000 Chinese
‘volunteers’ drove
them back to the pre-
war status quo

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