Bill Clinton’s successful negotiations for the return of two US journalists have put North Korea in the news, but what do we know about this veiled Stalinist state? Tania Branigan investigates
Thanks to his trademark Mao suit, Elvis-style sunglasses and commitment to North Korea’s nuclear programme, Kim Jong-il has become an instantly recognisable figure and his country a regular feature in news headlines. Yet most people know little about the “hermit kingdom” — a title first applied to ancient Korea.
It is successful in limiting not only its citizens’ access to information — only senior officials can use the internet, for example — but also that of foreigners.
Intelligence agencies around the world are reduced to poring over photos of Kim to ascertain his state of health and therefore the country’s stability.
Much of what we know about him comes from the memoirs of his former sushi chef.
But over the years more information has emerged. The border with China has become porous, with people moving back and forth and some in the area using Chinese cellphone networks with smuggled handsets.
Until 1987 no visitors from “non-aligned” countries were allowed; by 1993, about 50 Western tourists a year were visiting. Now just under 2000 a year go there, with up to 30 000 Chinese tourists, accompanied by guides at all times. Photographs are inspected — and often deleted — before tourists leave. And it is still relatively rare for journalists to gain access.
Then there are the defectors, who paint an alarming picture of widespread human rights abuses, although many of their accounts date back to the 1990s.
A report from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights this year condemns “severe human rights violations including the use of torture, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention and forced labour; the absence of due process and the rule of law; death sentences for political offences; and a large number of prison camps.
“The government operates a semi-hereditary system of social discrimination whereby all citizens are classified into 53 subgroups under overall security ratings — ‘core’, ‘wavering’ and ‘hostile’ — based on their family’s perceived loyalty to the regime. This rating determines virtually every facet of a person’s life, including employment and educational opportunities, place of residence, access to medical facilities and even access to stores.”
North Korea, aka the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is the world’s only communist dynasty: Kim Jong-il inherited power on the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994.
Official biographers say the 67-year-old was born in a military camp on Baekdu Mountain, his birth foretold by a swallow and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens. According to Soviet records, however, he was born in a Siberian village.
Kim is a three-time elected member of the country’s rubber-stamp Parliament. The country goes to the polls once every five years and there is one candidate per seat; turnout in 2003 was 99.9%.
He is said to have a fear of flying; his state visits to Russia and China have been made by armoured train. Only once is his voice thought to have been broadcast: in 1992, during a military parade, he told the crowd: “Glory to the heroic soldiers of the People’s Army!”
While many have portrayed him as a clownish and eccentric figure, others say he is smart and even witty. Shin Sang-ok — a South Korean film director who was kidnapped with his actor wife in 1978 so that he could build a North Korean film industry, said Kim, a film buff, tended to regard Rambo and James Bond films as records of reality.
His former sushi chef described a man with a violent temper and a love for large quantities of Hennessy VSOP cognac. Banquets used to last up to four days; his Pleasure Brigade, handpicked young women, provided the entertainment and were sometimes ordered to dance naked.
Relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated rapidly in the 1960s, leaving the country more reliant on China, but Kim senior developed an ideology known as juche or self-reliance — as well as a personality cult — which still thrives under his son.
Kim Jong-il’s official biography says he has composed six operas and, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, he has described himself as an internet expert.
He is thought to have anointed the youngest of his three sons, Kim Jong-un, as his heir and “Brilliant Comrade”, following his reported stroke last year.
Even less is known about this leader-in-waiting. Educated in Bern, Switzerland, the 25-year-old is said to be a basketball fan. His former classmates say he also spoke highly of Jean-Claude van Damme.
The Dear Leader’s eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, is believed to have fallen from favour after Japanese authorities caught him trying to enter their country on a fake passport in 2001, apparently seeking to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
But most analysts suggest that whoever takes over will essentially be a figurehead or arbitrator rather than a sole ruler. They suggest the elite is composed of three broad interest groups rather than factions — the Kim family, the military and other officials — who know that their fates are intertwined and who all wish to maintain the status quo. Some believe that when Kim goes, factionalism or a military takeover could lead to the collapse of the state.
Pyngyang’s landmarks include the 105-floor pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel, under construction since 1987, several revolving restaurants and two huge boulevards — 110m wide — in the city. Crossroads are overseen by female traffic police, reportedly hand-picked by Kim Jong-il for their beauty — although men manage the roundabouts.
Pyongyang’s eight cinemas are said to be closed frequently due to lack of power; when open, they screen domestic propaganda movies with inspiring titles such as The Fate of a Self-Defence Corps Man.
The state news agency, KCNA, runs a curious combination of brief news items such as its coverage of Clinton’s visit, angry denunciations of the treachery of “puppet authorities” in South Korea and long tales of the leadership’s concern for ordinary people.
This week, for example, a story was published about Kim Jong-il inspecting the cabbage harvest in autumn 1979.
“The meticulous care shown by the leader for winter kimchi [pickled cabbage, a dietary staple] is still conveyed as an epic of great love,” it concluded.
In the 1960s North Korea was one of the most industrialised of the East Asian nations. But there is no clearer way to see its stagnation than to compare it with its neighbour, China — once a poor relation, now a capitalist powerhouse.
Travel down the river which marks the two countries’ border and the disparity is striking. On one side, neon blazes at night; on the other, there is almost complete darkness.
“The scarcity of cars, the early nights, the almost total absence of entertainment places, combined with the electricity shortages, means that by midnight Pyongyang is effectively a ghost city until six the next morning,” writes Paul French in his book, North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula.
Fuel shortages, exacerbated by sanctions, mean that heating can be problematic in a country where temperatures can fall to -10C or lower in winter. Possessions are limited; only about half of households have bicycles, leaving most to walk to work.
Since 2002 the country has experimented with economic reforms, such as opening markets — although stock is usually very limited. Higher-ranked citizens can enter the department stores for foreigners and senior officials, although foreign currency is often required.
Although Chinese goods are now available, most products are unique to North Korea — such as Vinalon, a widely used synthetic textile made from limestone.
In May, as tensions on the peninsula escalated, North Korea announced that it was tearing up the contracts for the Kaesong joint industrial complex it had established with South Korea — a rare source of much-needed income, which employed 30 000 North Koreans.
In the countryside the situation is more pressing than in the towns. A crippling famine in the mid-1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people and although the situation has improved, the country remains highly dependent on food aid — the World Food Programme estimates that 8,7-million of its 23-million inhabitants need assistance. The range of food items is extremely limited and meat is a luxury.
Because of the strict controls over where tourists can go and what they can see, it is hard to assess the true state of affairs.
“Pyongyang itself outwardly presents quite a smart image to the world — there were people with SLR cameras,” said a recent visitor. “But we entered by train and when we were travelling through the countryside we did see some people in rags.
“We kept having power cuts and a guesthouse we stayed in — even though it is for foreigners — asked us what time we would like hot water.”
North Korea has a long history of tense relations with other regional powers and the West– particularly since it began its nuclear programme.
China is regarded as almost its sole ally; even so, relations are fraught, based as much as anything on China’s fear that the collapse of the current regime could lead to a flood of refugees and growing United States influence on its border. —