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What's life really like inside North Korea?
Explore life inside what North Koreans call "Kim Il Sung nation" with our photo essay, see how the past influences the present in
our timeline of the Korean War or test your own knowledge of daily life
inside the Democratic People's Republic with our interactive challenge. How much longer can North Korea last? For one analysis, check out our briefing by Korean affairs
writer Aidan Foster-Carter.
The Show Must Go On -- But For How Long?
By Aidan Foster-Carter
September 8, 2003
Say what you will about North Korea, it sure knows how to put on a show. In the world's last remaining hardline communist state, "mass games" are the ultimate collective art form.
Thousands of kids ranged along one side of a huge stadium, quick-shuffling big colored cards. Images flash up: heroic soldiers, rich cornfields, busy factories, the Leader, militant slogans, the Leader again.
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| 1945 |
U.S. declares 38th parallel border between U.S. and Soviet occupying troops in Korea.
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| 1946 |
North Korea's communist Korean Workers' Party formed under leadership of Kim Il Sung
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| 1948 |
Democratic People's Republic of Korea established on September 9.
Kim Il Sung named as premier. Republic of Korea (South Korea) formed on August 15.
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1950
-53 |
Korean War kills est. 4 million Koreans, nearly 1 million Chinese,
33,700 U.S. troops, and few thousand international UN troops.
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It's an epic performance, but it's more than that. Government-organized spectacles with casts of thousands have long been the mark of dictatorships. Control the movements and you control the message. And North Korea has much need to control that message.
The kids in the parades are the lucky ones. Living in Pyongyang, North Korea's showpiece capital -- itself a kind of performance, in marble and concrete -- is a privilege. This is the elite, yet they're visibly smaller than their siblings in Seoul.
Forty-story skyscrapers may look fancy, but not when you have to take the stairs, as power outages have stopped the elevator and the water. On night sky maps, North Korea is a black hole between the bright lights of China and South Korea. Only Pyongyang is a faint glimmer.
Mansudae Hall, where the Supreme People's Assembly meets -- for all of one day per year -- is like a theater auditorium, facing a gleaming white statue of the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung, father of Kim Jong Il. Members say yes, right on cue. More choreography.
Elections, too, are orchestrated. On August 3, 2003, 99.5 percent of North Korean electors -- all except those abroad or at sea -- turned out, and voted 100 percent for a single list of candidates.
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Practicing for a mass game extravaganza. Photo: Passion Pictures
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