The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is considered one of the more reclusive countries in the world. Unsurprisingly, the mysteries of North Korea are often interpreted by people who have never been there. This week on Worldview, we get the inside story from people who have actually have seen North Korea in person. They discuss their experiences and tell us what they think the future holds for this modern day hermit kingdom.
Related Links
Read a blog by a British tourist chronicling his 2005 trip to North Korea.
Listen to the Worldview interview with University of Chicago professor Bruce Cumings, author of North Korea: Another Country. (Originally broadcast February 2, 2004)
The annual Arirang Festival. Held for the benefit of tourists, it's part musical, part military parade. 70,000 people take part in the performance. The flag in this photo is made up of flash cards held by “volunteers.” Photo courtesy of One Stop Korea.
Arirang Festival
Scott Fisher—
Professor of English in Seoul, South Korea
While North Korea is open to Chinese and some Japanese tourists, very few Americans are allowed to visit. When they are, every minute of the trip is monitored and controlled. American Scott Fisher got the chance to go, and his ability to speak Korean gave him unique insight into the places he visited. We spend the hour talking with Scott about the control and spectacle of his 2002 trip.
South Korean author Hwang Sok-Yong visited North Korea to promote dialogue between the two nations. He was rewarded with years of imprisonment upon his return to Seoul. We talk with him about the tragic and violent separation of the two Koreas, and what needs to happen before reunification can take place.
Hwang is author of The Guest (Seven Stories Press, 2005). In this segment, Worldview producer Steve Bynum reads an excerpt translated by Su Eimer.
January 18, 2006
Worldview is preempted for the Illinois State of the State address
Born and raised in South Korea, 1979's “ping pong diplomacy” allowed Linton to visit the North. Since then, he’s gone back over 60 times to provide food aid and help doctors fight tuberculosis. We discuss his experience working in North Korean communities and the prospects for a self-sufficient DPRK.
January 20, 2006
Feeding the People
Meredith Woo-Cumings—Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
North Korea took a major step onto the international stage in 1995 when bad crops and economic isolation led to a famine. Ten years later, the North Korean government is asking the World Food Program to leave. We talk with Meredith Woo-Cumings, who is working on a book about the North Korean famine and the diet and institutional changes in North Korea’s effort to feed its people.
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