How do people live in North Korea? What do they see when they look out the window? What do they look at on the way to work? Where do people go for a walk on holidays? The most closed country in the world is once again lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding it.
Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il look at Pyongyang and smile from the colossal height of their height. The monument in Pyongyang's prestigious Mansudae district is one of the most majestic monuments in Korea. The citizens of the country look at him with true reverence.
The roof of the government building is decorated with two slogans: “Long live the great revolutionary idea of Songun!” and “Long live our people democratic republic!” An unaccustomed observer is struck by the emptiness of one of the central squares of Pyongyang. By the way, do you know what Songun is? This is the basis of the ideology of the Korean state, and the word translated means “the army comes first.” Well, now can you guess where the citizens are?
Sometimes totalitarian architecture can truly surprise. Originality, swift lines and graceful forms - it would be fun to drive under such an arch every day in a car on the way to work. But personal transport for North Koreans is an unaffordable bourgeois luxury.
Girl guides, like most Koreans, wear military clothing. This girl leads the group to the Museum of Victory in the Patriotic Liberation War. The information she shares with tourists does not deviate one iota from the general line of the party.
A lovely sunny day, and judging by the abundance of people, it was a day off. North Koreans make an appointment to meet friends, relatives or lovers in the square, at a noticeable monument. Everything is the same as everywhere else, right? Now pay attention to the postures of most of those waiting. More precisely, to one single pose, which clearly prevails in this group. Back straight, hands behind your back, look forward, chin higher... Isn't it the most comfortable position for communicating with friends?
You should study audio recordings only in specially designated places, so as not to suddenly hear something inappropriate.
Pyongyang police do not leave their post just at the moment when an unexpected traffic jam urgently requires their participation! True, the traffic jam here is still a long way off, but for Pyongyang such traffic is considered very tense. And in such a respectable car there is probably a prominent party member worthy of honor.
The metro is the pearl and pride of Pyongyang. The walls of the station are covered with frescoes telling about the immense happiness of the Korean people and their love for their army.
It’s nice to take a walk in a park like this on a day off. But the bronze statue of Kim Il Sung will not let you forget for a minute about who you owe your happiness on Korean soil.
Memorial cemetery where soldiers and officers who died in the war against the Japanese invaders are buried.
This is the main building of the Children's International Camp in Wonsan. Each summer session, up to 1,200 children can relax in the camp. And each of them must remember the faces of the Father and the Son.
Those who have visited North Korea say in shock that the rumors are not deceiving: they really eat dogs in the country! At the same time, prices for dog meat are regulated by the government.
Diligent and hard-working, North Koreans are capable of creating real masterpieces of landscape art. Where else will you see kilometers of perfectly trimmed lawns stretching somewhere into the distance, towards the blue mountains? Of course, such beauty is only suitable for organized events. If the tourists are not foreigners, they do not have to be warned once again that walking on the lawns is prohibited.
Bicycles are the most popular form of transport in North Korea. As a rule, Koreans move around the city either by bicycle or on foot. This is probably why no one has ever seen obese people in North Korea.
The painting by a North Korean artist, in which Kim Il Sung feeds everyone present from the belly, is called “Portrait of Democracy.” Looking at it, we see what paradise looks like for North Korean citizens: at least, an abundance of food is an indispensable component of it.
Collapsing provincial towns are common in North Korea. It seems that the government simply forgot about them, leaving citizens the opportunity to survive on their own - or move somewhere closer to large communist construction projects. This town is located almost on the outskirts of the large industrial city of Kaesong.
In the photo - seaport and Wonsan Naval Base. Now the ship "Mangonbong-92" is standing at the pier, which is preparing to sail to Japan. A whole crowd of local residents will gather to watch such a grandiose event.
Such trucks serve as buses for North Koreans living in rural areas. The back shakes mercilessly, and if it rains it becomes completely uncomfortable, but no one has yet offered North Korean peasants any other means of transport.
Panorama of Phetyang at dawn. In the distance gleams the roof of the 105-story Hotel Rügen, in which, no matter when you look there, you will not find any occupied rooms.
This is Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. This is where the most important government events take place - demonstrations, rallies, military parades. Kim Il Sung Square is a true symbol of North Korean state propaganda.
What is the North Korean peasant with a happy face and a sheaf of grain in his hands calling for? Well, of course: “Full concentration! Full mobilization! All for the battle for the harvest!” Our grandparents will cry with nostalgic tenderness.
This is the village of Panmunjom on the border of North and South Korea. No one has lived here for a long time, except for the military, who are vigilantly watching day and night to ensure that none of their compatriots penetrates into the hostile world of cleanliness. The metal tower in the distance is the point of no return: further passage is prohibited on pain of death.
Kaesong is a large industrial city in the south of the country. Paving stones, greenery, bicycles... But the red flags do not let you forget that you are in the happiest country in the world.
It’s not very convenient to ride a bicycle in military uniform, but what can you do if you go far? Passenger cars in North Korea are intended only for the state elite.
This is not a rally or political information. This is just a folk dance festival. But you must always face the leaders!
Another monument to the leaders, this time on the territory of the Mansudae Association of North Korean Realist Artists Art Park. The flowers at the foot of the monument are always fresh.
Aircraft of the national air carrier Air Corio parked. Due to the low technical level of this airline, flights to EU air ports are prohibited.
US Atrocity Museum. It contains all possible evidence of the atrocities committed by American soldiers during the Korean War.
The secret to perfect lawns: a large team of landscapers with first-class (by North Korean standards) tools, armed with the determination to turn beloved Pyongyang into a garden city.
The DPRK, or otherwise North Korea, is the most closed country in the world. It does not submit statistical data to the world information bank, so it is difficult to determine even the exact number of the state's population. Getting into this country is quite difficult, one might say almost impossible. And if you come to North Korea as part of an excursion group ( independent trips prohibited in the DPRK), prepare for the fact that you will be constantly accompanied by an “official guide”, and two more people in civilian clothes will follow in the distance, trying not to draw attention to themselves. But staged photos show us the prosperity and happiness of ordinary workers of the DPRK. What is the real North Korea like? Our article will be devoted to the lives of its ordinary citizens.
A little history and politics
After World War II, the former Japanese colony of Korea became the subject of disputes between the USSR and the United States. The Soviet Union established control over the territory of the peninsula north of the thirty-eighth parallel, and the United States established control over the southern part of the country. Thus, a single people was divided by a demarcation line. When the Republic of Korea was formed in the south of the peninsula in August 1948, the northern part also declared itself a separate country in September of the same year. All political power was monopolized by the protege of the USSR - the Labor Party. In 1950, the DPRK decided to take revenge and, supported by China and Soviet Union, invaded South Korea. The latter was defended by Great Britain, the USA and a number of other states that fought under the UN banner. Over three years of fighting, more than a million Koreans were killed and injured. But after the end of the war there was no unification of the people. While in the south the country's development took a democratic path, life in North Korea became increasingly similar to existence under a totalitarian system. The country has established a personality cult for the rulers of the Kim clan.
Juche
All spheres of life in this state are permeated by a special type of communist ideology. It was developed in the mid-twentieth century by Kim Il Sung. This ideology is called Juche. Over the seventy years of the existence of the DPRK, this ideology has turned into a kind of religion. Any skepticism towards the ruling party, and especially the leaders, is equated to sacrilege. Juche is based on the principles of identity, which led the country to isolation and closeness from outside world. Life in North Korea is built on myths. Citizens are told that they live better than their neighbors and that in other countries the economy is completely stagnant. The country has its own calendar. It begins with the birthday of the father of the nation, Kim Il Sung (1912). According to Juche ideas, citizens are prohibited from “all kinds of servility towards other countries,” which in everyday life is expressed in the extremely cautious communication of Koreans with foreigners. Isolationism, which became one of the main slogans of the country (the so-called “reliance on one’s own strength”), led to the fact that in the nineties, when famine began in the republic due to incompetent management, the DPRK authorities refused to recognize this fact for a long time.
Tourism in North Korea
As strange as it may sound, arriving in this most closed state is like entering the mystical Shambhala. You won't meet in free sale There are simply no air tickets to Pyongyang. The easiest way to get into the country is from China. The DPRK government, despite “relying on its own forces,” is loyal to its northern neighbor. And after the death of Kim Jong Il, a slight liberalization has been observed. It is expressed, first of all, in the fact that they began to allow Chinese tourists, and also allowed to trade consumer goods from the Middle Kingdom. Let's not forget that many residents of the northern part of the country have relatives in the south. The liberalization of the last five years has affected them too. Near the border, in the mountainous region of Kumgangsan, a special tourist zone has been established, where citizens from the southern republic come with food and clothing to make life easier for their relatives in North Korea. Every year, about five thousand tourists from Western European countries arrive in the DPRK as part of excursion groups. From Russia to get to closed country You can only fly Vladivostok - Pyongyang, which is operated by Air Koryo airline. Liberalization also affected residents Far East RF. The Nason free trade zone opened in 2012.
Restrictions for tourists
Foreigners' passports are taken away for safekeeping upon entry into the country. Until 2013, they confiscated and Cell phones. Only embassy employees are allowed to use the Internet. The country has its own network. It's called Intronet. Finding objective information there is just as difficult as hearing it on the radio or TV. All channels in the country, without exception, are state-owned. They sing praises to the current ruler, as well as his father and grandfather, and also tell what a great and prosperous country North Korea is. Real life photos, however, clearly contradict this statement. There are no exchange offices in the country. Citizens are prohibited from owning currency, and foreigners are prohibited from owning local money, the won. Also, strangers are not allowed into shops, train stations, or anywhere outside the excursion route. Tourists live in special reservation hotels. They have their own shops for foreigners, the prices of which are comparable to European ones.
Life in North Korea through the eyes of eyewitnesses
How do tourists characterize the life of local residents? The most frequently used words in reviews of the DPRK are “poverty” and “dullness.” Well-read tourists often compare the country to Orwell's novel 1984. Locals eat mainly rice and vegetables. Fish and meat appear on tables only on major holidays. But for various memorable dates (and there are many of them in the country), the government gives food packages to certain sections of society. These rations contain men's and women's vodka, mineral water, sweets. For the holidays, discount coupons are also issued for the purchase of clothing. With all this, life in North Korea seems to be unusually pleasing to the population. People endlessly praise their leader, sometimes with ecstatic delight. But how sincere is this?
North Korea: the life of ordinary people
Despite the fact that official guides try to present their country in an embellished way, the sad reality is simply striking. High-rise buildings are being built in Pyongyang, but there are very few of them. The city mainly consists of dull concrete barracks. Along the streets along which excursion routes run, houses are plastered, and residents are instructed to place flowerpots in their windows. But you can notice that a number of buildings on the second line are devoid of this decor. The vast majority of North Korean citizens are thin or even skinny - this is due to eating only rice and vegetables. If you want to show compassion, bring chocolate, cigarettes, and cosmetics to your guide. But most importantly, do not try to secretly leave the hotel and, especially, talk to local residents. First of all, it won't work. They'll just run away. Secondly, they will immediately tell the authorities about the incident. And in the end, your guide, who is responsible for maintaining the tourists’ faith in the happy present of the DPRK, will suffer.
Liberalization of the last six years
Since Kim Jong Il's death at the end of 2011, the country has seen some positive changes. If you believe the reviews, then life in North Korea through the eyes of those tourists who visited the state under the previous ruler has become more open. This is expressed in Everyday life. First of all, people began to dress not in paramilitary jackets, but in bright Chinese things. There are even cars owned by private individuals. But tourists in excursion groups are still required to bow to the statues of the two rulers of the DPRK.
North Korea recently created its own time zone: Pyongyang Standard Time.
Starting August 15, the country reverted to the time used on the Korean Peninsula before Japanese rule.
It costs $8,000 to defect from North Korea.
That's exactly what it takes to get to China.
North Korea's per capita GDP is $1,800.
North Korean citizens born after the Korean War are on average 2 inches shorter than South Koreans.
This altitude difference is explained by the fact that 6 million North Koreans need food and one third of children are chronically malnourished.
North Korea claims to have a 100% literacy rate.
The CIA says that literate people in North Korea are those who are 15 years of age or older and can read and write.
There are 28 state-approved haircuts.
Women are allowed to choose from 14 styles.
Men "are prohibited from having hair longer than 5cm, while older people's hair can be longer than 7cm (3").
Bill Gates is estimated to be worth five times the entire GDP of North Korea.
Bill Gates's estimated net worth is $795,000,000,000.
North Korea's GDP is estimated at $1545 billion.
The North Korean football team scored a goal against Brazil at the 2010 World Cup.
But the match was still lost with a score of 2:1.
If Pyongyang were a US city, it would be the 4th most populous city.
The population of Pyongyang is 2 million 843 thousand people.
This is more than the fourth largest US city, Houston (2.23 million).
North Korea is approximately the size of the US state of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania - 119,283 square kilometers.
North Korea - 120,538 square kilometers.
Less than 20% of North Korea's land is arable.
It's about the size of New Jersey.
Only 19.5% of North Korea's land is arable.
It's 8,800 square miles.
The number of people ready for military service in North Korea is 2.5 times the population of Norway.
These are 6.515 million men and 6.418 million women.
That turns out to be 12.933 million military personnel.
Norway's population is about 5.1 million.
Only 2.83% of roads in North Korea are paved.
All of North Korea has 25,554 kilometers of roads, but only 724 kilometers are paved.
Qatar's per capita GDP is 51 times greater than North Korea's per capita GDP.
At $92,400, Qatar's GDP per capita was the highest in the world in 2014.
North Korea's GDP per capita is estimated to be $1,800 in 2013.
North Korea was named the most corrupt country.
In the annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2014, North Korea was named the most corrupt country.
Corruption scores for 174 countries range from 0 (very high level corruption) up to 100 (no corruption).
North Korea received 8 points.
The late Kim Jong Il's annual expenditure on cognac was 800 times the annual income of the average Korean in the DPRK.
Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's father, reportedly spent £700,000 on Hennessy every year. That's about $1.2 million.
The average annual income in North Korea is estimated to be between $1,000 and $2,000.
“The last months have become a time of mass escapes of North Korean diplomats, employees of foreign trade organizations and mid-level officials. They have not escaped in such numbers for 60 years.”
http://tttkkk.livejournal.com/298199.html
“Most likely, these escapes are a somewhat belated reaction to the “Jang Song-taek case” and the execution of the generals, because in such quantities as in the last 2-3 years, the DPRK’s big bosses haven’t shot for 60 years. At the same time, the Supreme Leader , it seems, does not even feel any special respect for the families and descendants of the Manchu partisans, who from 1958-60 constituted the hereditary elite of the country and were practically untouchable (as a rule, it is impossible to shoot, demoted and sent to the village for labor re-education is possible. , but in most cases - with subsequent rehabilitation and return to approximately the previous level).
Of course, there was talk again that “the regime is on the verge of collapse.”
However, Andrey Lankov, who wrote this on his blog tttkkk
, being a specialist on the DPRK, is skeptical about such rumors.
He adds: “... in the fear of God, the Young Marshal holds the elite, and its very top, and the people, as well as the lower and middle layers of the elite, including new business, is now living rather poorly by our standards, but still better than he has ever lived, and therefore has considerable hopes with the new Kim for further improvement of the situation.”
Now let's talk about reverse side medals.
Every country has its own shortcomings. To insure yourself against severe disappointments, I propose to consider 10 disadvantages of life in Korea. Everything is subjective, of course, but personally it seems to me that the 10 minuses are as follows:
1.
Lack of a basic concept of etiquette and the concept of personal space
This applies to older people who consider it their business to tell you, despite the fact that you yourself may already have children, what and how to do, moreover, in an orderly tone, even if they don’t know you. They can start communicating with younger people with the phrase “Hey, you!” And some individuals can even openly fart, excuse me, in the subway (which happened to me twice), not to mention constant coughing on the street.
2.
TO Korean traditional holidays
There are two significant traditional holidays in Korea: Chuseok, the autumn harvest festival, and Seollal. New Year By lunar calendar. Since ancient times, these holidays have been considered very important, which bring together all relatives at one table in the house of the eldest relative, where they play games and have fun.
But now everything has completely changed due to the constant employment of Koreans and their inability to have fun, and also because of the difference in generations: the younger ones do not have the right (!) to ask anything from the elders. It's not decent and there are a lot of cockroaches. The following picture emerges (this is not only in the husband’s family, but in most Korean families): relatives who go to visit swear all the way that they have to go so far (usually this is another city, and often the relationship between relatives, to put it mildly, is “not very much,” but you have to go - it’s a tradition), and the relatives who receive guests swear that they need to cook a ton of food for the whole crowd. Then everyone meets with smiles on their faces, as if they were just waiting for this meeting.
Then they bow to the ancestors (men only), that is, they put out food, light fragrances and bow in memory of the deceased ancestors. After which they begin to eat. What does it all have to do with women bringing it, and the men sitting there looking so important. Then communication begins to be “squeezed out” on general topics discussed annually in order to maintain the conversation. After the topics are exhausted, time begins to drag on, like, well, it’s inconvenient to leave right away, you need to create the appearance that everyone is interested)). You can watch TV. Hmm, in general, for an ordinary “Russian” person like me, all this tediousness is very difficult to survive, even if it’s for a few hours only 2 times a year! Brrrrr... Moreover, the most interesting thing is that Koreans are always proud and show off their “family values”. Yeah! Somehow it’s not like that!
A! Well, and most importantly, for these holidays they give MONEY, which is above all for a Korean and for the sake of which all the inconveniences for Koreans can be tolerated)) Because money is everything for a Korean!)
3. Inability to get close to people and be sincere
I think it’s already clear from point 2, but I’ll add a little. It's a bit of a shame that in most cases, Koreans become “friends” if it benefits them. And regarding sincerity, you will never know what they really think about you, since they always have a “mask” of politeness on their face.
4. Lack of New Year's atmosphere
This is my sore subject. Their Catholic Christmas is December 25th, on this day couples usually go on a date! Just like that. Well, sometimes a family can go out to a restaurant. Our New Year on December 31st in Korea practically passes without attention. No Christmas trees at home! The only thing is that quite a lot of people gather in the very center of the city to see the mayor or someone else ring the big iron bell at 12 at night. And if you are in another part of the city, then there is generally zero feeling that it is a new year. One day I just returned from a funeral on December 31 at 10 pm... but that's another story.
5. Worship of elders
Again, this cult of age in Korea. Here, when meeting someone, the first thing they ask is how old you are in order to understand how to behave. If you are older, even by a year, then such respect and uti-paths; if you are younger, then frivolous, relaxed communication. The most interesting thing is that even twins can be distinguished between an older and a younger brother or sister!
6. Trying not to stand out from the crowd
Oh, God forbid, at lunch with employees of different ages you ordered noodles when everyone else ordered rice. Oh no no no! Now, of course, they won’t say anything (not like a few years ago), but they will look askance. Our company has 2 canteens, that is, 2 menus. We all go there together as a department. So, the youngest girl in our department is 20 years old. Usually everyone approaches the menu and “sort of chooses” (because anyway they usually eat whatever the boss prefers). Although, okay, I won’t exaggerate, our boss is quite loyal and can still listen to the wishes of junior employees. Not everyone is like that though. But the most interesting thing is that when they ask that girl, her answer is always the same: “oh, I don’t know how to make such a choice” and looks at the floor in embarrassment.
7. Talk about plastic surgery
Korea is simply a paradise for people with “defects”, as it is very developed plastic surgery and the prices are quite cheap for it. Let’s say, if a girl is not pretty, then she can ask her parents to give her a “nose operation” when she graduates from school, for example.
Recently there was the following situation in the elevator: two women were riding and a younger girl came in, whom they knew, but apparently had not seen for a long time. After the greeting came the question: oh, what did you do to your nose? you've changed so much. (it’s very cool to ask such a question in front of strangers in the elevator!). And the girl answers: no, I just changed my hairstyle!))))
Of course, I was torn. The most interesting thing is that the girl came out earlier, and these women started grinning and discussing, like: well, well, she did her hair..)))
8. No cheese
In principle, it is possible to find it, but you have to look for it and it is sooooo expensive((((no comments
9. Carrying babies like gypsies
It's just annoying! They wrap, or rather, tie the child to themselves from behind with a blanket!!! even a very small one! what's going on with the bones? I can't imagine.
10. Vacation
Korea has the smallest vacations in the world!
This is what life in Korea is like for me, with its drawbacks. Maybe you can survive them calmly and they won’t seem so scary to you :) Which disadvantage is most unacceptable to you?
Human society is constantly experimenting with how it can arrange itself in such a way that most of its members would be as comfortable as possible.
From the outside, this probably looks like a rheumatic fat man’s attempts to make himself more comfortable on a flimsy couch with sharp corners: no matter how the poor fellow turns, he will certainly pinch something on himself, then he will serve time,” they say “ " with reference to chisartravel.com
Not to express deep respect to the image of the leader is to endanger not only yourself, but also your entire family.
Some particularly desperate experiments were costly. Take, for example, the 20th century. The entire planet was a gigantic testing ground where two systems clashed in rivalry. Society is against individuality, totalitarianism is against democracy, order is against chaos. As we know, chaos won, which is not surprising. You see, it takes a lot of effort to ruin chaos, while the most perfect order can be destroyed with one well-placed bowl of chili.
Order does not tolerate mistakes, but chaos... chaos feeds on them.
The love of freedom is a vile quality that interferes with ordered happiness
A demonstration defeat took place at two experimental sites. Two countries were taken: one in Europe, the second in Asia. Germany and Korea were neatly divided in half and in both cases the market, elections, freedom of speech and individual rights were introduced in one half, while the other half was ordered to build an ideally fair and well-functioning social system in which the individual has the only right - to serve the common good.
However, the German experiment went unsuccessfully from the very beginning. Even Hitler did not completely exterminate the cultural traditions of the freedom-loving Germans - what about Honecker! And it is difficult to create a socialist society right in the middle of the swamp of decaying capitalism. It is not surprising that the GDR, no matter how much effort and resources they pour into it, will not brilliant success did not demonstrate, she raised the most pathetic housekeeper, and its inhabitants, instead of being filled with a competitive spirit, preferred to run to their Western relatives, masquerading at the border as the contents of their suitcases.
The Korean site promised great success. Still, the Asian mentality is historically more inclined towards subordination and total control, and even more so if we are talking about Koreans, who lived under Japanese protectorate for almost half a century and have long since forgotten all freedoms.
Juche forever
Kim Il Sung at the beginning of his reign.
After a series of rather bloody political upheavals, a former captain became the almost sole ruler of the DPRK Soviet army Kim Il Sung. He was once a partisan who fought against the Japanese occupation, then, like many Korean communists, he ended up in the USSR and in 1945 returned to his homeland to build new order. Knowing the Stalinist regime well, he managed to recreate it in Korea, and the copy in many ways surpassed the original.
The entire population of the country was divided into 51 groups according to social origin and degree of loyalty to the new regime. Moreover, unlike the USSR, it was not even hushed up that the very fact of your birth into the “wrong” family can be a crime: exiles and camps here have been officially sending not only criminals, but also all members of their families, for more than half a century number of young children. The main ideology of the state became the “Juche idea,” which, with some stretch, can be translated as “self-reliance.” The essence of ideology comes down to the following provisions.
North Korea is the greatest country in the world. Very good. All other countries are bad. There are very bad ones, and there are inferior ones who are in slavery to the very bad ones. There are also countries that are not exactly bad, but also bad. For example, China and the USSR. They followed the path of communism, but distorted it, and this is wrong.
The characteristic features of a Caucasian are always signs of an enemy.
Only North Koreans live happily, all other peoples eke out a miserable existence. The most unhappy country in the world is South Korea. It has been taken over by the damned imperialist bastards, and all South Koreans are divided into two categories: jackals, vile minions of the regime, and oppressed pathetic beggars who are too cowardly to drive out the Americans.
Most great person in the world - the great leader Kim Il Sung*. He liberated the country and expelled the damned Japanese. He is the wisest man on Earth. He is a living god. That is, he is already lifeless, but this does not matter, because he is forever alive. Everything you have was given to you by Kim Il Sung. The second great man is the son of the great leader Kim Il Sung, the beloved leader Kim Jong Il. The third is the current owner of the DPRK, the grandson of the great leader, the brilliant comrade Kim Jong-un. We express our love for Kim Il Sung through hard work. We love to work. We also love to learn the Juche idea.
- By the way, in Korea we would have been sent to a camp for this phrase. Because Koreans are taught from kindergarten that the name of the great leader Kim Il Sung must appear at the beginning of the sentence. Damn, this one would have been exiled too...
We North Koreans are great happy people. Hooray!
Magic levers
Kim Il Sung and his closest aides were, of course, crocodiles. But these crocodiles had good intentions. They really tried to create an ideally happy society. And when is a person happy? From the point of view of order theory, a person is happy when he takes his place, knows exactly what to do, and is satisfied with the existing state of affairs. Unfortunately, the one who created people made many mistakes in his creation. For example, he instilled in us a craving for freedom, independence, adventurism, risk, as well as pride and the desire to express our thoughts out loud.
All these vile human qualities interfered with a state of complete, orderly happiness. But Kim Il Sung knew well what levers could be used to control a person. These levers - love, fear, ignorance and control - are fully involved in Korean ideology. That is, in all other ideologies they are also involved a little, but no one here can keep up with the Koreans.
Ignorance
Until the early 80s, televisions in the country were distributed only according to party lists.
Any unofficial information is completely illegal in the country. There is no access to any foreign newspapers or magazines. There is practically no literature as such, except for the officially approved works of modern North Korean writers, which, by and large, amount to praising the ideas of the Juche and the great leader.
Moreover, even North Korean newspapers cannot be stored here for too long: according to A.N. Lankov, one of the few specialists on the DPRK, it is almost impossible to obtain a fifteen-year-old newspaper even in a special storage facility. Still would! Party policy sometimes has to change, and there is no need for the average person to follow these fluctuations.
Koreans have radios, but each device must be sealed in the workshop so that it can only receive a few government radio channels. For keeping an unsealed receiver at home, you are immediately sent to the camp, along with your entire family.
There are televisions, but the cost of a device made in Taiwan or Russia, but with a Korean brand stuck on top of the manufacturer’s mark, is equal to approximately five years’ salary of an employee. So few people can watch TV, two state channels, especially considering that electricity in residential buildings is turned on for only a few hours a day. However, there is nothing to watch there, unless, of course, you count hymns to the leader, children's parades in honor of the leader and monstrous cartoons about how you need to study well in order to fight well against the damned imperialists.
North Koreans, of course, do not travel abroad, except for a tiny layer of members of the party elite. Some specialists can use the Internet with special permits - several institutions have computers connected to the Internet. But to sit down at them, a scientist needs to have a bunch of passes, and any visit to any site is naturally registered and then carefully studied by the security service.
Luxury housing for the elite. There is even a sewer system and elevators work in the morning!
In the world of official information, fabulous lies are happening. What they say in the news is not just a distortion of reality - it has nothing to do with it. Did you know that the average American ration does not exceed 300 grams of grains per day? At the same time, they do not have rations as such; they must earn their three hundred grams of corn at the factory, where the police beat them, so that the Americans work better.
Lankov gives a charming example from a North Korean third-grade textbook: “A South Korean boy, in order to save his dying sister from starvation, donated a liter of blood for American soldiers. With this money he bought rice cake for his sister. How many liters of blood must he donate so that he, his unemployed mother and his old grandmother will also get half a cake?”
The North Korean knows practically nothing about the world around him; he knows neither the past, nor the future, and even exact sciences in local schools and institutes they are taught with the distortions required by the official ideology. For such an information vacuum, of course, one has to pay for a fantastically low level of science and culture. But it's worth it.
Love
The North Korean has almost no understanding of the real world
Love brings happiness, and this, by the way, is very good if you make a person love what he needs. The North Korean loves his leader and his country, and they help him in every way possible. Every adult Korean is required to wear a pin with a portrait of Kim Il Sung on his lapel; in every house, institution, in every apartment there should be a portrait of the leader hanging. The portrait should be cleaned daily with a brush and wiped with a dry cloth. So, for this brush there is a special drawer, standing in a place of honor in the apartment. There should be nothing else on the wall on which the portrait hangs, no patterns or pictures - this is disrespectful. Until the seventies, damage to a portrait, even unintentional, was punishable by execution; in the eighties, this could have been done with exile.
The eleven-hour working day of a North Korean daily begins and ends with half-hour political information, which tells about how good it is to live in the DPRK and how great and beautiful the leaders of the greatest country in the world are. On Sunday, the only non-working day, colleagues are supposed to meet together to once again discuss the Juche idea.
The most important school subject— study of the biography of Kim Il Sung. In each kindergarten, for example, there is a carefully guarded model of the leader’s native village; preschool children are required to show without hesitation exactly under which tree “the great leader, at the age of five, reflected on the fate of humanity,” and where “he trained his body through sports and hardening to fight the Japanese invaders.” There is not a single song in the country that does not contain the name of the leader.
Control
All the youth in the country serve in the army. There are simply no young people on the streets.
Control over the state of minds of the citizens of the DPRK is carried out by the MTF and MOB, or the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security. Moreover, the MTF is in charge of ideology and deals only with serious political offenses of the residents, while ordinary control over the lives of Koreans is under the jurisdiction of the MTF. It is the MOB patrols that carry out raids on apartments for their political decency and collect denunciations from citizens against each other.
But, naturally, no ministries would be enough for vigil, so the country has created a system of “inminbans”. Any housing in the DPRK is included in one or another inminban - usually twenty, thirty, rarely forty families. Each inminban has a headman - a person responsible for everything that happens in the cell. Every week, the head of the Inminban is obliged to report to the representative of the Ministry of Public Security about what is happening in the area entrusted to him, whether there is anything suspicious, whether anyone has uttered sedition, or whether there is unregistered radio equipment. The head of the Inminban has the right to enter any apartment at any time of the day or night; not letting him in is a crime.
Every person who comes to a house or apartment for more than a few hours is required to register with the headman, especially if he intends to stay overnight. The apartment owners and the guest must provide the warden with a written explanation of the reason for the overnight stay. If, during a MOB raid, unaccounted-for guests are found in the house, not only the owners of the apartment, but also the headman will go to a special settlement. In particularly obvious cases of sedition, responsibility may fall on all members of the inminban at once - for failure to inform. For example, for an unauthorized visit of a foreigner to a Korean’s home, several dozen families may end up in the camp at once if they saw him, but hid the information.
Traffic jams in a country where there is no private transport are, as we see, a rare phenomenon.
However, unaccounted guests are rare in Korea. The fact is that you can move from city to city and from village to village only with special passes, which the elders of the inminbans receive at the Moscow Public Library. You can wait months for such permits. And to Pyongyang, for example, no one can go to Pyongyang just like that: people from other regions are allowed into the capital only for official reasons.
Fear
The DPRK is ready to fight the imperialist vermin with machine guns, calculators and volumes of Juche.
According to human rights organizations, approximately 15 percent of all North Koreans live in camps and special settlements.
There are regimes of varying severity, but usually these are simply areas surrounded by energized barbed wire where prisoners live in dugouts and shacks. In strict regimes, women, men and children are kept separately; in normal regimes, families are not prohibited from living together. Prisoners cultivate the land or work in factories. The working day here lasts 18 hours, that's all free time reserved for sleep.
Most strong problem There is famine in the camp. A defector to South Korea, Kang Cheol Hwan, who managed to escape from the camp and get out of the country, testifies that the standard diet for an adult camp resident was 290 grams of millet or corn per day. The prisoners eat rats, mice and frogs - this is a rare delicacy; a rat corpse is of great value here. The mortality rate reaches approximately 30 percent in the first five years, the reason for this is hunger, exhaustion and beatings.
Also a popular measure for political offenders (as well as for criminal offenders) is the death penalty. It is automatically applied when it comes to such serious violations as disrespectful words addressed to the great leader. Death executions are carried out publicly, by shooting. High school and student excursions are brought to them so that young people get a correct idea of what is good and what is bad.
That's how they lived
Portraits of precious leaders hang even in the subway, in every car.
The life of a North Korean who has not yet been convicted, however, cannot be called a raspberry. As a child, he spends almost all his free time in kindergarten and school, since his parents have no time to sit with him: they are always at work. At seventeen, he is drafted into the army, where he serves for ten years (for women, the service life is reduced to eight). Only after the army can he go to college and get married (marriage is prohibited for men under 27 and women under 25).
He lives in a tiny apartment, 18 meters of total area here is very comfortable housing for a family. If he is not a resident of Pyongyang, then with a 99 percent probability he has neither water supply nor sewerage in his house, even in cities before apartment buildings there are speakers and wooden toilets.
He eats meat and sweets four times a year, on national holidays, when residents are given coupons for these types of food. Usually he feeds on rice, corn and millet, which he receives on ration cards at the rate of 500-600 grams per adult in “well-fed” years. Once a year he is allowed to receive ration cards for 80 kilograms of cabbage in order to pickle it. Small free market here in last years got started, but the cost of a skinny chicken is equal to the monthly salary of an employee. Party officials, however, eat quite decently: they receive food from special distributors and differ from the very lean rest of the population by being pleasantly plump.
Almost all women have their hair cut short and permed, since the great leader once said that this particular hairstyle suits Korean women very well. Now wearing a different hairstyle is like signing your own disloyalty. Long hair on men is strictly prohibited; cutting hair longer than five centimeters can lead to arrest.
Experiment results
The ceremonial children from a privileged Pyongyang kindergarten, allowed to be shown to foreigners.
Deplorable. Poverty, a practically non-functioning economy, population decline - all these are signs of a failed social experience got out of control during Kim Il Sung's lifetime. In the nineties, real famine came to the country, caused by drought and the cessation of food supplies from the collapsed USSR.
Pyongyang tried to hush up the true scale of the disaster, but, according to experts who studied satellite imagery, approximately two million people died of hunger during these years, that is, every tenth Korean died. Despite the fact that the DPRK was a rogue state, guilty of nuclear blackmail, the world community began to supply humanitarian aid there, which it is still doing.
Love for the leader helps not to go crazy - this is the state version of the “Stockholm syndrome”
In 1994, Kim Il Sung died, and since then the regime began to creak especially loudly. Nevertheless, nothing has changed fundamentally, except for some liberalization of the market. There are signs that suggest that the party elite of North Korea is ready to give up the country in exchange for guarantees of personal integrity and accounts in Swiss banks.
But now South Korea no longer expresses immediate readiness for unification and forgiveness: after all, take on board 20 million people who are not adapted to modern life, is a risky business. Engineers who have never seen a computer; peasants who are excellent at cooking grass, but are unfamiliar with the basics of modern agriculture; civil servants who know the Juche formulas by heart, but have not the slightest idea of what a toilet looks like... Sociologists predict social upheavals, stockbrokers predict St. Vitus’s dance on the stock exchanges, ordinary South Koreans are reasonably afraid sharp decline standard of living.
Even in a store for foreigners, where Koreans are not allowed to enter, the range of goods is not very diverse.
So the DPRK still exists - a crumbling monument to a great social experiment that once again showed that freedom, despite all its untidiness, is perhaps the only path that humanity can follow.
A country in half: historical background
Kim Il Sung
In 1945, Soviet and American troops occupied Korea, thus freeing it from Japanese occupation. The country was divided along the 38th parallel: the north went to the USSR, the south to the USA. Some time was spent trying to agree on unifying the country back, but since the partners had different views on everything, naturally, no consensus was reached and in 1948 the formation of two Koreas was officially announced. It cannot be said that the parties gave up like this, without effort. In 1950, the Korean War began, somewhat reminiscent of the Third World War. From the north, the USSR, China and the hastily formed North Korean army fought, the honor of the southerners was defended by the USA, Great Britain and the Philippines, and among other things, UN peacekeeping forces were still traveling back and forth across Korea, throwing a spanner in the works of both. In general, it was quite stormy.
In 1953 the war ended. True, no agreements were signed; formally, both Koreas continued to remain in a state of war. North Koreans call this war the “Patriotic Liberation War,” while South Koreans call it the “June 25 Incident.” Quite a characteristic difference in terms.
In the end, the division at the 38th parallel remained in effect. Around the border, the parties formed the so-called “demilitarized zone” - an area that is still crammed with unresolved mines and the remains of military equipment: the war is not officially over. During the war, approximately a million Chinese, two million South and North Koreans, 54,000 Americans, 5,000 British, and 315 soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army died.
After the war, the United States brought order to South Korea: they took control of the government, banned the execution of communists without trial, built military bases and poured money into the economy, so that South Korea quickly turned into one of the richest and most successful Asian states. Much more interesting things have begun in North Korea.
