Getting drunk in North Korea

[Jongseong]

As a South Korean living abroad, I am regularly asked about North Korea by curious foreigners despite having no special expertise on the subject besides having followed the news all my life by the virtue of being from the south of the DMZ. One of the most difficult things to convey, even to fellow South Koreans, is the fact that North Korea is as complex as any human society. For most people, North Korea is the very definition of the Great Unknown, and we tend to imagine such things as monoliths (it is incredible for instance how many outsiders seem to picture Africa as one giant mass of starvation, disease, and war, and are astonished to see anything that doesn't fit the preconception like bustling modern cities with a thriving middle class).

It is easy to describe the lack of freedoms, cult of personality, massive prison camps, the songbun caste system and total lack of civil society in North Korea, leaving the curious foreigner shaking her head at the bizarreness and monstrosity of it all. But it is also easy to forget that this is a society inhabited by flesh and blood humans, not ruthless robots and their abstract oppressed victims. We don't get to see much of this side of course. But in some ways in the last decade or so North Korea has been creeping towards something close to normalcy, albeit far from ideal—corrupt officials, flourishing black markets, extreme disparities in wealth, and even cross-border trade with China. Nothing to portend a Soviet-style collapse of course, but even the slightest increase in openness is something we should welcome.

[ggreer]

My favorite book about the DPRK is Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-ebook/dp/B...).

I'm hopeful that the DPRK is moving toward modernity, but if the stories from that book are anywhere close to the truth, they are still by far the most evil regime on the planet.

[tassl]

I would add "The cleanest race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cleanest-Race-Themselves-ebook/dp/...).

I have been reading about North Korea for a while, and I find this book to open a new perspective on the way north korean people see themselves and their leaders. While I haven't had the pleasure to meet any person born and raised in North Korean (or at least, not as far as I know) I find that some of the contents of the book can be applied to South Koreans. Obviously, only up to a certain degree.

Previous discussion on NK:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5817014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3368310

[radicaldreamer]

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader was a great read.

[drcode]

FYI available on audible.

[trebuch3t]

> What if the nightmare imagined by George Orwell in 1984 were real? What if you had to live in a country where radio dials were fixed to a single government station? Where the surroundings were entirely black-and-white except for the red lettering of the propaganda signs? Where you were required to keep a large portrait of the president on your living room wall and bow to it on national holidays?

This sounds like an incredible read. I just ordered a copy from Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation!

[dominotw]

Even though I liked the book. I was not a big fan of story telling style.

> far the most evil regime on the planet.

That should be reserved for The American Empire. IMHO.

[Mikeb85]

While there's no doubt that North Korea's regime is cruel and oppressive, and that they're very poor by generally accepted standards of measuring wealth, I've also seen quite a few documentaries suggesting that North Korea is also very different than how we view it.

I've seen one where a tourist sneaks a video camera into the DPRK, and manages to take quite a bit of video, and in many ways they're not so different from us. In most ways, actually.

They drink, go out for picnics, celebrate holidays, and do alot of the 'normal' things we do. The country looks clean, and the people aren't all walking skeletons.

I think the truth about DPRK is somewhere in between our western propaganda, and the communist propaganda... With a bit of sci-fi weirdness thrown in for good measure...

[pyre]

Even with "sneaking in a video camera," most outsiders are only allowed a view of North Korea that doesn't see the bad things. I know there are instances of people seeing parts of the country that aren't on the guided tour, but these are few and far-between, and usually don't include foreigners given free reign to wander over the country-side to see what they can see.

[threeseed]

It's very common for foreigners staying at that hotel to get drunk every night. There is no internet, no other recreations and you aren't allowed to leave the hotel. And their home brewed beer is actually pretty good.

Surprised they never mentioned the bowling alley / video game parlour which is hugely popular amongst the children of the well to do.

[azernik]

  "Governments in Communist countries often resort to subsidizing alcohol in order to keep people happy," Petrov explains.

My impression of the Soviet alcohol policy was actually the other way around - alcohol was tightly regulated and sold at high markups, which (maybe not surprisingly) was a barrier to actual attempts to reduce alcoholism, since the state budget was so dependent on the sales.