Thread: In North Korea's Capital, More Abundance Than Expected In Everyday Life

In North Korea's Capital, More Abundance Than Expected In Everyday Life

May 5, 20176:25 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Robert Siegel 2010

North Korea now has its own version of Spam in grocery stores. In the capital, Pyongyang, at least, everyone has a smartphone — or two.

These are some of the things journalist Jean Lee didn't see five years ago when she opened the Associated Press bureau in the capital of the impoverished and isolated country.

Now a global fellow at the Wilson Center, Lee was invited to travel to North Korea this week to attend a medical conference in Pyongyang and follow a team of Korean-American surgeons.

With the backdrop of tense relations between North Korea and the U.S., Lee spoke with All Things Considered from Pyongyang about what life is like in the North Korean capital these days.

On North Koreans' reactions to political tensions with the U.S.

It's amazingly calm. You would be surprised at how calm things are here, and I have to say that like most North Koreans, I've been largely cut off from the screaming headlines that we've been seeing. I didn't have Internet access for several days. And, as you probably know, most North Koreans don't have Internet access. They get their news from their own state media, so unless they read about it in their own state media, or see it on the evening news, they're not very aware of it.

To be honest, it's remarkable, we are not seeing people who are preparing for war. They've had a month, really, of some big anniversaries. They celebrated May Day. I did go to a May Day celebration in the park, where they were singing and dancing and drinking.

But they're getting ready now for a busy season of rice planting in May, so they're gearing up for that. They are completely unfazed, it seems, by all the rhetoric that we're hearing overseas.

On what has changed since Lee's last trip to North Korea

I have to point out that I've only been in Pyongyang, which is the showcase capital. This is a city of elites, and so I'm only getting that side of the picture. It's like only going to Manhattan, rather than seeing the rest of the United States.

That said, it's surprising given what we hear about the sanctions how things have progressed. Everybody has a smartphone — sometimes two. Everybody is on their phones. They're all playing video games. They're doing what we do with our cellphones as well, they're checking the news, messaging their friends.

There's quite a bit more English, which is interesting. English is the main language that children learn here.

There's certainly a lot more cars, which is surprising given the concern about fuel shortages.

I did some shopping today ... and it's just amazing the kinds of products that they have on the shelves. [That] certainly wasn't the case when I started coming to North Korea. So, in some ways, life has improved for the people of Pyongyang.

That said, I think that things are still incredibly difficult in the countryside. They have a chronic food shortage, and that's only going to get worse, of course, with the tightened sanctions.

On the wide variety of products available in local stores

I saw so many varieties of potato chips, varieties of canned goods, what would be their equivalent of Spam, for example, but all kinds of things — computers, tablets, PCs — all kinds of things that you might not expect to see in a country that is still very poor.

On the recent detention of a Korean-American professor

I'm certainly familiar with [the case of Tony Kim]. As a Korean-American, this is something that anyone who comes here on a regular basis would be paying attention to.

But the North Koreans didn't hear about it until earlier this week when it was reported in their state media. So it certainly was something that we discussed as a group with our North Korean guides, was the first that they had heard about it. And we don't really have a lot of details, and so we'll certainly be waiting and watching to see what he is being accused of.

They have a very, very exhaustive penal code, and it is very easy to break those laws, and that's what makes being here dangerous for anyone.

All Things Considered producer Matt Ozug and digital producer Maureen Pao contributed to this report.

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/05/527092...-everyday-life

So life is better there for some at least. Nice to be see an informative and somewhat positive article coming out about North Korea. As usual, much of our CORRUPT MEDIA seems to have missed an important story here. Good for NPR for covering it. Just about the time I think we should remove government funding from NPR, they do something like this that makes every cent worth it.

There's quite a bit more English, which is interesting. English is the main language that children learn here.

Interesting.

Originally Posted by Judy

So life is better there for some at least. Nice to be see an information and somewhat positive article coming out about North Korea. As usual, much of our CORRUPT MEDIA seems to have missed an important story here. Good for NPR for covering it. Just about the time I think we should remove government funding from NPR, they do something like this that makes every cent worth it.

Could you correct this sentence, I don't think it makes any sense,

Nice to be see an information and somewhat positive article coming out about North Korea.

Did you mean "Nice to seeing information ... "?

But seriously, do you find something of value in North Korea as a country or system of government or anything at all? Really? How do you feel about the Trump administration's posture that North Korea represents a threat in the region and a nuclear threat as well? How do you feel about the DMZ? Do you think South Korea and the United States should recognize North Korea as a country?

Oh, thank you. No, the word should be "informative", not information, and I made the correction.

As to your other questions, yes, I see value in North Korea, they are a small country, but of course these people and their nation still have value. Obviously I don't approve of many of the government practices, and I don't approve of their deity type of government. But remember, that is how England, France, Spain, Japan, China, all of them used to be, all power passed by God or some Deity from one King/Queen/Emperor to the next monarchy with absolute ultimate authority, right or wrong, fair or not.

I see value in all countries and people whether I like their form of government or not. And considering our heritages, it's pretty gawd damn hypocritical to carry on like "oh my god, their leader operates like a King or a Monarch or an Emperor." Well, haven't we all at some time in our ancestry? So they're a little behind, so what? How else could have defended their nation? How else could they have survived as a country? They never had US protection and trade like South Korea.

Yes, North Korea represents an unacceptable threat to the region and to the United States with nuclear weapons. This has to end and end now, the easy way or the hard way. It has to end. Nuclear weapons have to be dispensed with, starting with North Korea, then Iran, then India and Pakistan, then China, Russia, US, France, Great Britain and Israel. And that should be the number one objective of the UN Permanent Security Council.

The DMZ is required until some point in the future when Korea can be reunified. People forget that there are two Koreas because of other countries, including the US. This division was not the result of the choices of the Korean people. They were pawns and for North Korea, victims, of a post WWII agreement for balance of power. Such a little country with so much riding on it for other nations, but not for them. For South Korea it worked out great because they were lucky and were our little protectorate. For North Korea, it was a travesty.

So when we look at North Korea, we are looking into a mirror of our own post WWII policy, which may have been the right policy at the time, I'm not going to second-guess anything about the post WWII agreements. However, we've had 72 years to do things differently with North Korea and in recent years, many opportunities to remedy much of what is wrong in North Korea have been squandered even though a larger ideal of doing so has been there, when it gets down to actually doing it, we let something stupid like "counterfeit" money stand in the way. That idiocy needs to grind to an end, and I think it has with the election of Donald Trump as President. He is not the fool that others have been, he would never allow some counterfeiting scam to stand in the way of a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

Of course we should recognize North Korea as a country. We created the country. We should not only recognize North Korea, we should establish diplomatic relations with North Korea, we should have normalized trade with North Korea and encourage other countries to do likewise. We participated in the creation of North Korea, so we should treat it with the same respect as any other. They mind their own business, try to survive in a very difficult situation, and have so far been able to do so.

Look at how happy Vietnam is now? The people are happy again. Some day, the Korean people need to be united again like Vietnam has been, hopefully by agreement without a foreign guided war. The Korean people are a wonderful people, both in North and South Korea. The DMZ didn't change who they are, it didn't alter their essence, it just changed their freedoms, opportunities and economics.

Did you notice the little tidbit, that the main language North Koreans learn is .... English? Does that alone not send a crucial message of friendship and respect to the United States?

Our state department professionals have missed the boat on many countries including Russia, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Crimea, Venezuela, Mexico, India and Pakistan. Our full-timers in the US Department of State have mischaracterized countries like Russia, North Korea, Syria, Iran and Venezuela, they have demonized them, they have made them threats before they were and as a result set a stage for them to become one, and then they demonstrate a complete incapacity to solve the problems they created.

Something is very wrong in our State Department with the career professionals, but I have confidence that Trump and Tillerson will get to the bottom of it and correct the problems in a lasting way.

I was pleased to see this article about North Korea, because it shows that they want to be modern, they want a successful group of people, and of course I was thrilled that they were teaching English because the only reason they would do that is in anticipation of some day having normalized relations with the United States which shines a light of hope greater than any, in my opinion, for a good outcome.

That all said, they can not under any circumstance be allowed to continue with their nuclear weapons program. Their nuclear weapons have to be destroyed or dismantled, and soon.