Capitalising On the North
The only rule we have is that when someone is speaking, everyone else listens.
November 15th, 2017
1880’s Inaugural Salon Night
November 15th marked the first salon night, a roundtable discussion, held at 1880. A conversation on North Korea that attempted to debunk myths and preconceived notions of this nation that has been deemed the world’s most reclusive country in the world. Serendipitously, this morning we woke up to North Korea announcing a diplomatic verdict on Trump: “He’s a coward who deserves to die”. A response to Trump’s public insult on North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un on a five-country tour of Asia. In the crosshairs of verbal banter between America and North Korea, lies the stories of 25.37 million people, and a very tiny fraction of these stories got told last night where participants who have been to North Korea shared personal anecdotes from recent visits into the country alongside comments on a whole myriad of topics: political tensions, nuclear power, economics and architecture.
Amongst many things, we learned that the goal of North Korea is regime survival: the Kim family to continue to reign supreme, and nuclear development to ensure the survival of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We also debated if sanctions were useful and if they really affect the elite classes. We struggled to understand together how the telco service in North Korea does not allow local North Koreans to access the outside world. ‘What do teenagers do in their free time if they don’t have access to Youtube or Facebook?!’, was certainly a question we were all thinking in our minds. We were all shocked to find out that for North Koreans who are dating, they are free to rent an apartment by the hour in Pyongyang, a phenomenon more progressive than in some other countries.
But the stories we remembered the most were the personal anecdotes from those who had been to North Korea: the sights they saw, the people they interacted with, the food they ate — the human connection. When asked: “What do you hope to see in North Korea in the next 20 years?” A participant put it best when he answered: “I hope to see more of the human side of North Korea because they are just like us. They worry about their jobs and their kids. They are also humans, though on the exterior side they might be seen as just worshipping their cult leader.”
Written: November 16th, 2017
