[QUOTE]By now, "Gangnam Style" has become part of the pop culture lexicon. The infectious song by South Korean singer Psy broke the Guinness world record for "most likes" on YouTube. The video has been watched nearly 425 million times and has inspired flash mobs and parodies by lifeguards, Ivy leaguers and hot moms.
If you haven't heard of "Gangnam Style," you've probably spent the last month orbiting in outer space.
Or perhaps you live above the 38th parallel, in North Korea.
North Korea is as isolated and backward as South Korea is wired and technologically advanced. And while some ruling elites in Pyongyang are certainly aware of "Gangnam Style" — we know this because of a parody video posted on the North's official website featuring an image of South Korean presidential candidate Park Geun-hye doing Psy's signature horse dance — the regime prohibits ordinary North Koreans from having access to the Internet.
The average citizen has no knowledge of YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.
It's safe to say that North Korea's notorious propaganda machine would never willingly let its impoverished population see the original "Gangnam Style" video, which parodies the riches and excess enjoyed in Seoul's trendy Gangnam neighborhood.
Three years ago, I got a unique glimpse of the so-called Hermit Kingdom after I was taken prisoner by North Korean soldiers along the Chinese-North Korean border while working on a documentary. The North was like no place I'd ever been. In contrast to the frenzy of the South, life there was slow and antiquated, a land frozen in a Cold War time warp.
All media in North Korea are tightly controlled by the country's propaganda network. I was able to watch television with my guards on certain evenings, and as far as I could tell, the closest thing the North Koreans had to a pop sensation was a group of handsome singers from the military choir who belted out old-fashioned love songs and patriotic anthems. My female guards would swoon at the sight of these acoustic-guitar-playing performers dressed in army garb.
But my guards were not totally unaware of outside pop culture. One had been given Hollywood screenplays in college to help improve her English language skills. It was disconcerting to hear her reciting lines from the Adam Sandler flick "Big Daddy." U.S. culture was clearly seeping into North Korea, but it was hard to fathom what effect it was having.
Since North Korea's new leader, Kim Jung Un, took power after his father's death in December 2011, there has been much speculation about what kind of regime he will lead. Will the Western-educated Kim move to modernize his country and open it up to the outside world? Or will he take a hard-line, military-first approach to governance like his father?
Kim presents himself as a younger, more huggable version of his beloved grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and there is some indication he's interested in change. He has reportedly increased the flow of workers and officials to neighboring China, both to bring in cash for the strained regime and to study Chinese-style capitalism.
But in the end, it may not be entirely up to Kim when and how his country modernizes. Despite the culture of fear that permeates North Korean society, food shortages and the Gulag-style prison camps that hold an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners, there are signs that the government is losing its iron grip.
Some televisions in the border region, for example, are now able to pick up programming from neighboring China, providing some North Koreans access to news from outside the country. USB drives, MP3 players and DVDs are regularly smuggled across the border, and surveys of people who manage to sneak across the border into China each year suggest that around half of them had watched a foreign DVD while living in North Korea.
Smuggled Chinese smartphones have allowed people in the border regions surreptitious access to the Internet, and the phones have also allowed many North Koreans to learn about what's happening in the outside world by speaking with their relatives in South Korea.
Illegal marketplaces, where individual traders squat on dusty street corners to peddle cigarettes, socks, vegetables and anything else they can get, have been instrumental in fueling not only a shadow economy but in creating a new way for people to share information and network. Migrant workers and traders, who cross to China and back, return not only with goods but with knowledge of the outside world.
Many officials are bribed to turn a blind eye to the markets. But even without the payoffs, it would be difficult for the regime to crack down on enterprises that are supplying people with necessities the government cannot. The black market has allowed many to break away from their reliance on the regime.
"The change signals emerging since Kim Jong Un took over can only be fully understood by taking into account the bottom-up pressures," said Sokeel Park, director of research and strategy for the group Liberty in North Korea. Kim, he said, will have to find a way "to adapt to these changes if he wants to have a long-term career as leader."
North Koreans won't be living in Gangnam style any time soon. But the more they can break through the government's information blockade and learn about life outside the Hermit Kingdom, the more the regime will have to adapt and change.
Laura Ling is host of the documentary series "E! Investigates" and the coauthor of "Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home."[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ling-gangnam-style-20121012,0,3217038.story"]http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ling-gangnam-style-20121012,0,3217038.story[/URL]
I wonder when NK will eventually integrate with the rest of the world. So much potential, seriously.
is this suppose to be our daily reminder that north korea is isolated from the world?
what else is new?
[editline]11th October 2012[/editline]
although the border regions getting limited access to the outside world is pretty neat
[QUOTE=Laferio;38005052]I wonder when NK will eventually integrate with the rest of the world. So much potential, seriously.[/QUOTE]
When Korea reunifies.
Me and my girlfriend accidentally walked into one of these flashmobs, shit was cray
We'll reunify them by having a pizza party. Those niggas loves pizza parties.
[QUOTE=Doneeh;38005137]We'll reunify them by having a pizza party. Those niggas loves pizza parties.[/QUOTE]
But what if North Korea tries to take all the Pizza and a fight breaks out and it doesn't stop until the UN draws a line down the middle of the pizza and they sign a treaty.
Then 31 North Korean commandos try to steal the Pizza and we shoot them all and capture the rest, so NK starts digging tunnels to the pizza and we have to stop them.
[quote]Kim presents himself as a younger, more huggable version of his beloved grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and there is some indication he's interested in change.[/quote]
Awww...
[QUOTE=Laferio;38005052]I wonder when NK will eventually integrate with the rest of the world. So much potential, seriously.[/QUOTE]
I would like this without a massive war breaking out, neither country deserves it.
So they've decided that to get the majority of the populace to read an article about the conditions in North Korea they have to bait them with Gangnam Style? Kinda sad.
[QUOTE=Jimmyshimmy;38005122]Me and my girlfriend accidentally walked into one of these flashmobs, shit was cray[/QUOTE]
Ain't it Jay
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;38005226]But what if North Korea tries to take all the Pizza and a fight breaks out and it doesn't stop until the UN draws a line down the middle of the pizza and they sign a treaty.
Then 31 North Korean commandos try to steal the Pizza and we shoot them all and capture the rest, so NK starts digging tunnels to the pizza and we have to stop them.[/QUOTE]Don't worry, only difference between north korean special forces and their regular armed forces is that they're given ammunition and food.
[QUOTE=stupid07er;38005459]So they've decided that to get the majority of the populace to read an article about the conditions in North Korea they have to bait them with Gangnam Style? Kinda sad.[/QUOTE]
it mentions how a parody video of it was put on the DPRK official website
I find North Korea so fascinating
I can only imagine what it must be like to live where an entire country is controlled to a point where, for most people, information about the outside world comes in rumors, and for a small portion of the population, is smuggled in
It's bad enough they live isolated and get brainwashed by the government, but the conditions they live in are far worse. [QUOTE]North Korean doctors perform operations without anesthesia in clinics where hypodermic needles are not sterilized and sheets are not washed, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released on Thursday.
“Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving,” the report quoted a 24-year-old North Korean defector as saying, describing how his left leg was amputated without anesthesia after a train accident. “I was in so much pain that I screamed and eventually fainted from pain.” [/QUOTE]
Watching documentaries about nk is fascinating and sad at the same time. It's like article says, it's like the time stood still there.
[QUOTE=Desuh;38007309]It's bad enough they live isolated and get brainwashed by the government, but the conditions they live in are far worse.
Watching documentaries about nk is fascinating and sad at the same time. It's like article says, it's like the time stood still there.[/QUOTE]
Wow that's not even Cold War tech, that's like American Civil War tech.
[QUOTE=stupid07er;38005459]So they've decided that to get the majority of the populace to read an article about the conditions in North Korea they have to bait them with Gangnam Style? Kinda sad.[/QUOTE]
That's pretty clever actually. Only after I read the whole article did I realize Gangnam Style was just a bait and the article was about something else entirely.
I doubt my mum and dad have heard of gangnam style. I only found out what it was a couple of weeks ago cos I gave in after seeing shit all over Facebook. Turned out I had heard the sng cos my housemate had played it
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;38007324]Wow that's not even Cold War tech, that's like American Civil War tech.[/QUOTE]
WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA!
Where the majority of country hasn't even entered the 20th century yet.
Jesus Christ, just read the wikipedia article of the author.
[quote]In the last week of March, 2009, North Korea announced that two American journalists were detained and would be indicted and tried for illegally entering the country. On May 3, 2009, it was officially announced that Ling and fellow journalist Euna Lee were the journalists that had been detained, after they attempted to film refugees along the border with China.[16] In June 2009, they were sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison for illegal entry into North Korea, and unspecified hostile acts.[17][18] Many in the media called it a show trial.[19] The United States government made diplomatic efforts to oppose this sentence before their release in August 2009.[20]
Lisa Ling stated that when they left the United States, her sister and Lee never intended to cross into North Korea. She has also revealed that her sister requires medical treatment for an ulcer from which she is currently suffering.[21]
Ling was pardoned along with Euna Lee, and they have both returned to the United States following an unannounced visit to North Korea by former US President Bill Clinton on August 4, 2009.[7][22] Some human rights activists in South Korea have accused Lee and Ling of needlessly placing North Korean refugees in danger by not being more careful with their tapes and notebooks in the event they were apprehended[/quote]
That has to be terrifying.
[QUOTE=Doozle;38007373]I doubt my mum and dad have heard of gangnam style. I only found out what it was a couple of weeks ago cos I gave in after seeing shit all over Facebook. Turned out I had heard the sng cos my housemate had played it[/QUOTE]
You haven't seen it on TV or on the radio? It got in like the top 5 songs on the charts over here.
Well now its actually a good thing that NK has a black market. I always thought that they would have a pretty tight security all around the borders, since theres something as armed as the DMZ
I say, South Korea should play Oppan Gangnam Style at the border to North Korea as loud as they can.
[QUOTE=D3TBS;38008233]Well now its actually a good thing that NK has a black market. I always thought that they would have a pretty tight security all around the borders, since theres something as armed as the DMZ[/QUOTE]
the china side is pretty laxed
[QUOTE=BCell;38008328]I say, South Korea should play Oppan Gangnam Style at the border to North Korea as loud as they can.[/QUOTE]
After which NK answers with a choir of artillery fire. Everyone's a critic.
How come it's news that the vast majority of North Koreans have never heard Gangnam Style? They still think the Soviet Union is around, for fuck's sake; information is more tightly controlled there than nuclear weapons in other countries.
[QUOTE=Pat.Lithium;38008037]You haven't seen it on TV or on the radio? It got in like the top 5 songs on the charts over here.[/QUOTE]
I watch quite a bit of TV but hadn't seen it and the only radio stations I really listen to are 'undeground' or pirate. It reached no 2 in the uk top 40.
I'll only occasionally listen to the top 10 but it's all the same shit dance music as of late.
I can imagine the South Koreans taunting the NKPA but doing Gangnam style on the 38th Parallel.
Imaging it makes me giggle like a girl.
This isn't really that much of a suprise.
There's a ton of useful or interesting information that many North Koreans are missing out on, but this article seems to imply that Gangnam Style is the most important thing ever and the fact that the North Korean government won't let the people know about it (like everything else outside the country) is worse than many of the other things they have done.
I really hope the popularity cools off soon, it's going too far.
What's gangnam style.
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