I'm fascinated by North Korea. I think these pictures say a lot. The details are interesting... close-up shots, framed without showing much context. Practically everybody has a pad of paper. Intriguing stuff.
Yeah, it is very interesting. There is definitely a formula to these pictures. Very tidy environment, inspecting a line of product, a dozen people watching in the background, and the same damn coat in every shot.
What I really wonder is Kim Jong-il "in" on the staged-ness of these shots? Or does he just operate with a different perception of the world because things are always presented to him in such a tidy manner?
I'm sure if you zoomed out you would see a whole lot of nothing. No more than a handful more cows or pigs or shoes or cookies that are in the shots we see here. NK is just a big vacant husk of a nation.
Some of those photos look photoshopped. In #10, his glasses are broken, whereas in others (14, 19) he looks very out of place. In many, his hat stand out particularly.
I posted this a few days ago but didn't get any attention:
A Year in Pyongyang:
The fascinating account of a British guy who spent a year in North Korea working as a literary reviser for their totalitarian governmenthttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1178719
I've started reading the book since then and it really paints a full and seemingly realistic picture of N Korea.
Great link (though it should come with a procrastination warning...) I've just spent over an hour browsing through it. It's definitely a different perspective.
I always found it interesting how he was constantly in fear of getting ripped off by the government, and moreover, how the North Korean people he worked with never really talked to him about how they felt.
I found the story about the girl who was impregnated by an African student and forced to have an abortion to be incredibly fascinating.
Lest we be too proud of our ability to detect the forced, artificial nature of these photographs, this link from the 'Big Picture' comment thread should be considered:
I just remember a lot of pictures of him looking rather pot-bellied. It probably wasn't the most tasteful remark but you have to wonder about chubby dictators who rule starving countries.
I have no problem whatsoever with untasteful remarks about, among all people, Kim Jong Il. I was only quite surprised how skinny he looked. I also had different memories. Maybe it’s that ugly coat?
He's been very ill recently. Nobody knows exactly with what, but the first videos of him after the illness showed him looking absolutely just-off-of-life-support.
The belief is that he had a stroke, if you look at one of his ungloved hands in the photos, it looks swollen and not entirely functional, which jives with what the analysts are guessing.
It's soju, and he smiles in multiple photographs. Kim Jong Il also likes shoes, plastic buckets, and large control panels.
I find these pictures sad. There's a lot of people working like slaves in NK for whom these pictures document the most important day in their lives. Awash in propaganda, many of them probably sincerely believe they're engaged in a noble mission of freedom. Sometimes I wonder if Kim himself believes he's the only think holding it together.
The regime in North Korea seems to have a desperate need to convince others of its legitimacy, unlike, say, that in Myanmar where the junta holds the country in a equally tight grip but seems to shun all outside scrutiny. Whereas any educated person can recognize Kim Jong Il, even Google has only a few photographs of Myanmar's leader.
In some ways North Korea is one of the few countries that feels really foreign to me nowadays, but I think that might be because there is so little verifiable information about it.
Regardless, looking at these photos I only think: Kim is looking really old.
When I saw the pictures of Kim Jong-il surrounded by a store filled with fresh fruit while his citizens starve, I was reminded of the final years of the rule of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. In Ceauşescu's case, to some extent it appears his lieutenants went to great lengths to present him with a sanitized view of the state of his country.
32 comments
[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 87.2 ms ] threadWhat I really wonder is Kim Jong-il "in" on the staged-ness of these shots? Or does he just operate with a different perception of the world because things are always presented to him in such a tidy manner?
He has to be aware of that, at least.
A Year in Pyongyang: The fascinating account of a British guy who spent a year in North Korea working as a literary reviser for their totalitarian government http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1178719
I've started reading the book since then and it really paints a full and seemingly realistic picture of N Korea.
I always found it interesting how he was constantly in fear of getting ripped off by the government, and moreover, how the North Korean people he worked with never really talked to him about how they felt.
I found the story about the girl who was impregnated by an African student and forced to have an abortion to be incredibly fascinating.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/02/obama_being_forced_to_l...
(Our photo op rituals aren't that much better. US photographers show a lot more creativity in composition, though.)
http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bi...
Christopher Hitchens wrote an interesting piece on NK recently http://www.slate.com/id/2243112/pagenum/all/
The belief is that he had a stroke, if you look at one of his ungloved hands in the photos, it looks swollen and not entirely functional, which jives with what the analysts are guessing.
I find these pictures sad. There's a lot of people working like slaves in NK for whom these pictures document the most important day in their lives. Awash in propaganda, many of them probably sincerely believe they're engaged in a noble mission of freedom. Sometimes I wonder if Kim himself believes he's the only think holding it together.
The regime in North Korea seems to have a desperate need to convince others of its legitimacy, unlike, say, that in Myanmar where the junta holds the country in a equally tight grip but seems to shun all outside scrutiny. Whereas any educated person can recognize Kim Jong Il, even Google has only a few photographs of Myanmar's leader.
(in case you were wondering: http://1763coventry.com/burmeses/index.php/TOC_-_Leaders_%26...)
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-...
A real eye opener.
"Ah yes. Flour. Very good."
"Excellent work on this bucket. But why orange? Ha ha ha!"
"What is this, a fishery for ants?"
Regardless, looking at these photos I only think: Kim is looking really old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceauşescu#Tensions
I'm curious if this is also the case in North Korea.
An excellent (and short) analysis of North Korea from Banyan, the Economist's excellent new Asia columnist.