Chayanov in Pyongyang

koreanewsline:

How’s this for unlikely? Here’s a fantastic North Korean accordion rendition of a-ha’s “Take on Me” by way of Norwegian artist Morten Traavik. The Wall Street Journal tells the fascinating story behind the video here.

I thought this quote from the article is important: 

As well, Mr. Traavik said that he suspected that the reality of life in North Korea is more complex and nuanced than is portrayed in the media.

The result of the negative flow of news coverage and images, Mr. Traavik said, is there’s a risk that a person who doesn’t criticize North Korea will be accused of pandering to its authoritarian regime.

“For me as an artist who likes to challenge boundaries, that risk is a great asset,” he said. “It’s a huge space where it’s possible for me to act.”

There is a tendency by many to see stories on North Korea as either overly soft on the country or involved in some conspiracy to destroy it. Both (may) accurately describe one part of the picture, but they are by no means the whole picture. As Mr. Traavik says, the real situation, like any situation, is much more complex.

I, personally, have come to judge the quality of stories and analysis on North Korea on whether they have a capacity for empathy. The definition of empathy in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is as follows: 

the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this

This is, of course, subtly different from sympathy, or “the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another,” which seems to dominate our debates and understanding of North Korea. Most people are sympathetic to the plight of the North Korean people, some are sympathetic to the government, but if we intend to really make the best of this situation, we really must have empathy for both the “people” and “government”-which itself realistically is a much more hazy divide than we usually admit- we must take the analysis that is out there and place ourselves in the shoes of any number of different actors in North Korean society from Kim Jong Un and the highest government officials to mid-ranking bureaucracy and professionals to those who have been left out of society and/or abused by it. If we begin to think how we would act in each situation, things begin to become more clear. This, of course, does not condone in any way actions, good, bad, or somewhere in between, but it does help give us a way to begin to understand how to work with the reality that confronts us. 

On another note, I think this article once again reveals to us the indisputable truth that North Korea just has way better musical tastes than South Korea. Low blow, I know, but it has to be said.