2024-06-15 06:18:36
North Korea, some of the remoted nations on the planet, has been dominated by the Kim household for the third era. In an interview for Aktuálně.cz, the famend Korean scholar Nina Špitálníková describes the circumstances below which somebody exterior of this household line may someday seize energy and what’s the place of Kim Jong-un’s kids. He additionally talks in regards to the younger era of North Koreans and the cooperation between Russia and the DPRK.
You symbolically launched the primary episode of your DPRK podcast specializing in life in North Korea on April 15, the birthday of Kim Il-sung. What was this totalitarian chief to North Koreans?
Kim Il-sung is a god to North Koreans. I did not even have to say his title in entrance of the older era of North Koreans with whom I had the chance to talk, they talked about it themselves. He’s the daddy, the image. While you say North Korea, it mechanically means Kim Il-sung. It’s logical as a result of earlier than that there was a interval of Japanese occupation when Koreans have been very unhealthy. They have been oppressed, they weren’t allowed to make use of Korean, Japan wished to make them a Japanese nation.
While you come to the DPRK, you will notice portraits of Kim Il-sung in all places. Each North Korean over the age of fifteen is required to put on a badge with this chief. That’s, obligatory… The regime claims that it’s voluntary, however in actuality it’s not. Kim Jong-un, the grandson of Kim Il-sung, now not has such a halo round him.
So is it tougher for him to keep up the dictatorship?
His father, Kim Jong-il, had a tougher time. When Kim Il-sung died in 1994, the person who stored the regime going left. As well as, giant floods broke out at the moment, famine occurred and the Soviet Union collapsed. Not that I really feel sorry for him, they’re all dictators, however folks actually began to really feel worse then. Not less than the meals rationing programs labored till then, however then every thing collapsed.
Kim Jong-un got here to energy in December 2011, I studied within the DPRK in 2012, when he was newly on the head of the nation. After I requested the professors there about him, they could not even inform me who he was. He studied overseas, so he was an unknown face. He tried to behave like a grandfather in his garments, speech and gestures within the first few months. One professor’s reply on the time was that she knew about him, that he was making an attempt to unite the North Korean folks. Such basic, obscure, North Korean, propaganda proclamations. However that they’d say something about his biography or something about him, that is not it.
Kim Jong-un needed to make some reforms when he got here to energy in order that the folks wouldn’t revolt. And he did them effectively for me. He tried to enhance the financial scenario, as a result of when the chief now not has an aura round him, the inhabitants should no less than really feel that they’re higher off. In any other case it does not work. However on the similar time he made the punishments harder, this was additionally his means of staying in energy. At one time, an individual could possibly be convicted of a number of sorts of misdemeanors. Public executions elevated, folks started to vanish from the streets extra typically.
- She studied Korean research on the Institute of the Far East, College of Arts, Charles College. She spent one semester at a college in Seoul, South Korea, and in 2011 and 2012 accomplished two month-long research stays in Pyongyang, North Korea.
- As a part of her scientific analysis, she handled North Korean propaganda, the historical past of the DPRK and the character cult of Kim Il-sung.
- She wrote the e book Mezi dvoi Kimy about her research within the DPRK. Within the e book Proof of Life within the DPRK, for which she received the Magnesia Litera award, she introduced interviews with North Koreans who managed to flee from the nation. She additionally tells the story of a North Korean refugee in her first novel Severka.
- This yr, he plans to publish the e book Tota lítá, which is meant to convey kids nearer to the essence of the functioning of totalitarian regimes.
- This spring, she launched the podcast KDLR stay, which tells about life in North Korea and brings the testimonies of North Korean refugees.
Photograph: Václav Vašků
You say that in Pyongyang one also can come throughout fashionable eating places. So if a European flew there, would not the capital be such a shock for him?
It was a shock to me as a result of I had beforehand lived in Seoul, a particularly fashionable metropolis, for eight months. Pyongyang is visually totally different, there are big monumental statues that I could not even think about till then. I assumed “wow, that is one thing”. All of the folks additionally look the identical as a result of they put on uniforms and badges. They’re informed what to say. I felt like I used to be in science fiction.
As well as, there’s a unusual stench within the DPRK, there may be excessive humidity, which regularly soaks the concrete, and mildew. However that is not North Korea’s fault, the area is susceptible to it. There’s additionally not such a number of meals within the outlets as right here. Even in these the place diplomats buy groceries, there is just one sort of yogurt, and an expired one at that. So it is totally different, however on the similar time you’ll be able to go to an expensive, fancy restaurant with fancy diamond chandeliers. However there’s a particular person alone. Even there you’ll be able to inform that it is totally different.
How come he alone?
North Koreans normally can’t afford such eating places as a result of they’re extraordinarily overpriced. The DPRK additionally tries to separate foreigners from locals. In a single such restaurant, I purchased fries with ketchup for twenty {dollars} (about 460 crowns), which is definitely half a yr’s wage in Korea. In all probability solely the very best caste can afford it.
However you’ll be able to go to a pub for a beer, have spaghetti, pizza… However it offers you diarrhea, as a result of no person goes to eating places very a lot, so that they put cheese that’s eight years outdated on the pizza. Clothes can be obtainable there. After I visited the black market often known as jangmadang, it was weird as a result of there have been garments like from the 80s, completely retro, however they’re obtainable. So it isn’t like the entire DPRK is prefer it’s from the seventeenth century and folks stroll round there ragged. It additionally relies on the place precisely you’re. The richest elite stay in Pyongyang, for my part it’s corresponding to some smaller metropolis within the Czech Republic.
You say it is regular to go to a pub and have a beer. So alcohol is allowed within the DPRK?
Sure, they drink quite a bit and the alcohol there may be extraordinarily robust. Twenty p.c is normally the minimal. Refugees typically say that in South Korea they discover alcohol weak, diluted. Identical with tobacco. They’ve excellent tobacco there. I do not smoke, however the good friend I used to be there with praised him. He’s robust and excellent. Even marijuana is authorized there. North Koreans routinely yell. Solely not in entrance of a foreigner, as a result of they do not need to create anti-propaganda that they’re “sluts”. Additionally they fart quite a bit.
I bear in mind a North Korean lady who was all the time constructive, a contented comrade and such a mild lady. I as soon as requested her what she bought as a marriage current. She mentioned a marriage costume, a stitching machine and ten grams of methamphetamine. She informed me as in the event that they have been marriage ceremony cupcakes. I requested her extra about it and came upon that medication are generally obtainable within the DPRK. Meth is cheaper there than espresso. When persons are drained, they take it as a result of they do not need to sleep after it.
After I began coping with the DPRK, somebody requested me how issues are with medication there. On the time, I assumed that it was unattainable for folks to make use of them there in the event that they did not even have drugs. However then I came upon that it is a utterly regular factor.
Final autumn, in an interview for Aktuálně.cz, you mentioned that “youthful North Koreans nonetheless know what to say and what to not say, however in contrast to their ancestors, they typically lack actual religion”. So, can the brand new era of North Koreans include the loosening of the regime?
Rest is clear someplace, for instance in style. Younger North Koreans are extra eager about her. The federal government even needed to concern a regulation banning coloured hair and piercings. Increased castes can safe entry to overseas magazines or serials through which they see stunning garments and need them too. I actually had conversations with younger North Koreans extra about this subject, we did not discuss North Korean pleasure like we did with the older era. It was refreshing that they tackled style, love, on a regular basis stuff. Even the native authorities realizes that it has to modernize. For instance, they attempt to create bands taking part in fashionable music.
I feel it’s going to by no means occur once more that North Koreans have such nationwide pleasure and cult of character as they did below Kim Il-sung. The youngsters are nonetheless studying about it, however they now not really feel pleasure.
So when the 40-year-old Kim Jong-un dies at this time, about whose state of well being there are numerous speculations, may there be a revolution within the nation?
It relies on what time he would die. If at a time when his kids usually are not but in a position to take over energy, another person must take over the rule, maybe some regent with out a historical past of lineage within the sense of a selected nation, who doesn’t even belong to the caste system. You would need to get folks otherwise. For instance, by means of good financial reforms in order that they’re higher off. At that second, some main modifications may happen. However in fact it must be a giant change, following the instance of the Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachev got here to energy there.
His sister, thirty-six-year-old Kim Yo-chong, already a high-ranking official, is usually talked about as a attainable successor to Kim. May a girl take energy within the DPRK someday?
Couldn’t. North Koreans are chauvinists. A person all the time dominated there. Ladies, though issues are altering a bit of now, nonetheless have the function of caring for males, bearing kids, nobody would take her significantly. Though the nurse holds excessive positions, she is admittedly solely in command of communication with overseas nations.
Each time somebody mentions the potential for her taking energy someday, I inform her to have a look at the Politburo assembly of the Employees’ Celebration of Korea. They’re males themselves. The society there may be not but prepared for a lady on the head of the state.
Overseas media additionally take note of Kim’s daughter, Kim Chu-e, whose age is estimated to be ten to 12 years outdated and who seems by his aspect at necessary occasions. What can this imply?
I do not perceive displaying your daughter in public, it is a very fascinating second for me. No dictator exposes his kids as a result of it’s harmful. I see no rational purpose to take action. I haven’t got a solution for that. To place it mildly, I am rooting for it as a result of I get pleasure from these North Korean quirks. When it is your 10 or 12 yr outdated’s birthday and also you launch a ballistic missile of their honor, it is “God”.
North Korean chief Kim Jong-un confirmed off his daughter at a army parade | Video: Youtube/Eagle Information
You’ve gotten been coping with North Korean propaganda for a very long time. The media within the DPRK started to report in regards to the daughter as an alternative as “beloved” or “most beloved” or “esteemed”. Is it a shift in expression that signifies one thing?
That is such a play on phrases. One comrade is alleged to be “pricey”, the opposite is alleged to be “esteemed”. I as soon as realized all his capabilities from Kim Il-sung, and I could not even bear in mind all of it.
Kim’s daughter can’t but maintain any workplace at her age. It’s attainable that he could have some rank within the Crimson Youth Military, the place you be a part of from the age of fifteen. At this second, a cult of character is being constructed for her throughout the household, however it’s not but recognized the place it’s going to lead.
Had been you stunned that the DPRK provides Russia with weapons for the battle it has been waging in Ukraine for the third yr?
It wasn’t shocking. Cooperation with Russia, previously the Soviet Union, has all the time been there. The Soviet Union really created North Korea. As well as, the DPRK wants cash and Russia wants weapons, it is a “win-win” scenario for each side. I would be stunned if both aspect did not give it a nod. As well as, it’s simple for the DPRK to produce weapons to Russia as a result of widespread border. We do not even know what nations North Korea is arming. It is her enterprise.
However it was fascinating that the nation initially didn’t touch upon the occasions in Ukraine. It took a number of weeks, perhaps two months, to let folks know that one thing was happening. And so they condemned the interference of overseas overseas powers within the battle between Moscow and Ukraine.
So the North Koreans did not initially know that Russia had launched an invasion of Ukraine?
Data in North Korea is small and the federal government there doses the information progressively. A whole lot of issues folks won’t ever discover out, and numerous issues can be delayed when the propaganda figures out methods to report it.
However the North Koreans do not even must know, what is the use for them… God is aware of in the event that they know the place Ukraine is, or in the event that they even know the title Ukraine. After I was there, I informed them that I used to be transferring in Dubai. Tutorial professors had no concept what Dubai was, not to mention the place it was.