The Hindu Business Line : North Korea: `World's most misunderstood nation'

WITH Mr George W. Bush continuing in his seat as the self-appointed protector of the free world, we could be seeing more action, especially in the `Axis of Evil' countries such as Iran and North Korea. Even as the White House is smug about the election results, student demonstrators in Teheran deride the `Great Satan' to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy when 52 hostages were held for 444 days.

And President Kim Jong Il's ambassador to the UN is not too happy with the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, signed into law by Mr Bush on October 18, "to help both those who flee the regime and those who are trapped inside the country".

However, North Korea is "the world's most misunderstood nation," according to Michael Harrold's Comrades and Strangers, from Wiley (www.wiley.com).

The book is an eminently readable memoir from `behind the closed doors of North Korea' where Harrold worked for seven years as "the language advisor for English translations of speeches" by the duo — the late President, Kim Il Sung, `the Great Leader', and his son, Kim Jong Il, now `the Dear Leader'.

The story begins with the author landing in the `Paradise on Earth' to a reception hosted by the Foreign Languages Publishing House. Through his eyes you'd see `doll-like visions of feminine delicacy' acting as traffic police in `kingfisher-blue uniforms and brown boots', and issuing `imperious orders with a cursory flick or stern pointing of their batons'; blank stares of adults and cheery greetings of children walking by in great discipline; the quiet lobby of Koryo Hotel where Harrold thinks of making sense of contradictions and resolving dilemmas within the first few days in the new job.

Visit the Pyongyang Metro, "the most attractive air-raid shelter in the world," to offer protection "from the next attack by the US imperialists".

Then, there is a parade to watch on the occasion of Kim's birthday, with `two million' people, an exaggeration, because "Koreans had terrible trouble with translating large numbers." Thus, one hundred thousand became `ten ten thousand'. `Man' is ten thousand, and `manse' is what crowds would cry when they saw their king, to mean they want him to live for ten thousand years. Long enough to see many descendents of Mr Bush continuing the fight against the `Axis'.

North Koreans are urged to look to the great leader in all they do, writes Harrold. "Regular weekly study sessions are held at which the people learn by heart sections of the works of the great leader." Topics range from public security to behaviour at work. He gives them guidance not only on professional and political activities, but also provides "intimate personal hygiene hints on brushing their teeth and washing their feet."

TV may show but "turgid, repetitive, uninspiring propaganda", with news all about the same man — "standing in the same slightly lopsided posture, in front of the same vast landscape painting, with his right arm extended in the same way to greet his foreign guests."

On the Art of the Cinema is the first book the author works on, though an urgent editing job intervenes — that of Kim's speech to a Non-Aligned meeting. The `new and fair international economic order' of Kim entailed the creditor nations of the world to ease "the debt burden of the poorer ones".

An important lesson Harrold learnt was to watch his word. He writes: "Philippe told me to watch what I said to Mr Choe and Madame Beatrice; Madame Beatrice warned me to be careful about what I said to Mr Choe; Mr Choe claimed Philippe and Madame Beatrice repeated to him everything I told them. Philippe told me not to believe Mr Choe if he claimed that he, Philippe, had told him something because he, Mr Choe, was probably lying. Mr Choe told me Philippe was a liar." Minders were everywhere, and the author confesses it was tough to keep a grasp on reality.

But, "In a situation where everyone around me seemed to be lying, it was a challenge even to know what that reality was."

The Pyongyang Times is presented as having a rigid formula, with the front page slapped with the photo of you-know-who. "In a particularly good week for news, Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il might have been awarded a medal by some revolutionary group in Latin America, or an honorary doctorate by a university somewhere in the Pacific Ocean," is something that may sound only too familiar here too.

Equally newsworthy are the naming of "a kindergarten in Eastern Europe or a street in southern Africa" after the divine embodiments.

Elsewhere in the book, there is mention of how the media in North Korea is littered with "tales of socialist morality" such as girls leaving the city "for the simple life in the countryside", caring for disabled soldiers as a patriotic act, "young people eager to become the son or daughter — and hence live-in help — of childless elderly couples unable to look after themselves," and so on.

Harrold surmises that North Korea's `bloodthirsty rhetoric and sabre-rattling' have their origins in the country's `frustration at not being taken seriously by the world'. "The US has probably never realised the strength of feeling against it in North Korea," he writes.

Uncle Sam is seen as responsible for many problems such as the division of Korea, death of millions of Koreans, and preventing unification. Therefore, it is not surprising that anti-Americanism is "a strong unifying factor within society".

Communism is a great equaliser, but it can add to difficulty because there are "two levels of comrade." The younger, unmarried one is `dongmu', while the older one is `dongji'. There are also many levels of courtesy, "conveyed by combinations of personal pronoun and verb ending."

In Korean, you don't address a person by his or her name, but use the appropriate prefix, such as comrade or `sonseng', professor. To resolve the confusion, if you were to address everybody by the more exalted title, `dongji', it may be considered "universally insulting". Who said all are equal!

In the `Afterword', the author prays that the international community extend the hand of friendship to North Korea and her "warm, generous and long-suffering people." Unheeding, will Bush launch on one more mission to find weapons of mass destruction in Kim's own paradise?

Economics@TheHindu.co.in

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