Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan linked to this post by the daughter of a diplomat who was toured around inside North Korea recently. The post paints the picture of a frigid winter dictatorship with all sorts of eccentric, often frightening details about how people are raised to believe in the totalitarian state.
Of particular note seems to be the large numbers of staged events for these touring diplomats, and the curious nature of the authorities who knew that life outside North Korea is so vastly different than how it is portrayed to the people who live there. Can maintaining political power alone explain the motivation of the leaders? It just doesn’t seem to be enough motivation for what you’ll read here.
I am not your go-to source on world political analysis, but I think it’s this post is well worth a read. It’s somehow hilarious and deeply scary.
A month ago I posted video of North Korean students playing an accordion version of A-Ha’s “Take On Me.” Seems to fit right in.
Thanks, Aaron. That was a fantastic read, in every sense of the word. I particularly liked the description of the e-Potemkin Village. And especially ironic, given the content of her piece, was the comment section (I know . . . ) in the WSJ piece to which Sophie linked: talk about creating your own walled-off, paranoid reality!