Sino-NK 2013 Rewind: North Korean Literature at Masik Speed

Grand People’s Study House, Pyongyang | Image: Stephan

We have reached the third week of Sino-NK’s 2013 Rewind series, this time a dedication to cultural and literary production in again a twin pairing of essays. As Brian Myers, robust intellectual sage of Dongseo University and author of The Cleanest Race might assert, North Korea’s cultural output depends on the narrative positionality of the reader/consumer, internal culturation appearing radically different to those exposed to external outputs. 

Thus, while we first considered the validity of reviewing the year from a high/low culture (considering North Korea as a “Kulturnation,” revealing perhaps its “Innerlichkeit”) it might be more functional to adopt an “inside/outside” strategy instead. So, in this week’s examination of North Korea’s “Weltanschauung” through the cultural lens, Benoit Berthelier, Sino-NK contributor at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales/Yonsei University, delves deep within the “inside,” assessing the narratives of Pyongyang’s literary production in 2013, a year of revolutionary speed. — Robert Winstanley-Chesters, Director of Research

Sino-NK 2013 Rewind: North Korean Literature at Masik Speed

by Benoit Berthelier

Both Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have been the subject of many a North Korean novel, and Kim Jong-un was quick to follow in their footsteps. The Young Marshall made his debut as a literary character last year, appearing in several paeans, epics, and a couple of short stories prompting a timely and thorough analysis by Professor Kim Seong-su of Sungkyunkwan University. These early efforts at applying “Leader Representation Literature” (suryeong hyeongsang munhak; 수령형상문학) to Kim Jong-un intensified in 2013. While fictional representations of Kim Jong-un in 2012 tended to be brief, 2013 saw the publication of the first short stories entirely devoted the new Leader’s achievements.[1]

“Gratitude,” by Yun Kyeong-chan,[2] starts with what is perhaps one of the most common narrative settings in suryeong hyeongsang literature: Kim Jong-un traveling by car to “an on the spot observation” (hyeonji sichal; 현지 시찰) site with a party official. On the way, the conversation switches to Comrade Choi Han-seong, an army commander who recently came to the attention of the party for punishing one of his subordinates. Choi and his men had been dispatched to the Bukseong Machinery Factory by Kim Jong-un himself to help build “welfare facilities.”

Since the region is poor, the Marshall personally advised Commander Choi against accepting “relief material” (wonho mulja; 원호 물자, goods voluntarily offered by the people to the army) so as not to burden the locals. However, after one of his men falls ill, Platoon Leader Kang Cheol-ho lets the insisting villagers feed the ailing soldier fermented anchovies.

For accepting “relief material,” Commander Choi has Kang demoted to a lower rank.The people of Bukseong complain to the party about this harsh punishment, but Kang readily accept his demotion and performs self-criticism. Once the construction is over, the officer is restored to his former duties by Kim Jong-un himself.

Although overtly political and moralizing, the narration retains a light-hearted tone all throughout and Yun manages to fit in a couple of humorous scenes, such as when a local schoolteacher falls in love with Kang Cheol-ho forcing the oafish Commander Choi to play matchmaker for the girl.

Civilians sending “relief material” to soldiers. | Image: Rodong Sinmun

“The Promise of Fire,” by Kim Il-su,[3] starts with a symbolic scene of transmission. Traveling at night, Kim Jong-un is driving at full speed in the hope of catching up with his father’s vehicle. After arriving at the place where Kim Jong-il was supposed to spend the night, he notices tire marks on the road and realizes his father has already left. The owner of a nearby factory comes up to Kim Jong-un and gives him the worn-out gloves his father forgot to take with him. The story then switches to a more prosaic matter, the organization of large scale fireworks “In Our Style” (uri sik; 우리 식) which Kim Jong-un takes over from his father.

Transmission is also the main theme of “Our Heritage,” by Yun Jong-gil,[4] in which the author puts in parallel discourses on the continuity of the Kim clan and a story about an intergenerational conflict. A fresh military academy graduate, Oh Deok-chan is charged with compiling the latest research on military science into a book. When his father, Korean War veteran and retired strategist Oh Seong-gwon, asks to review the book manuscript, Oh Deok-chan flatly refuses, arguing that old military ways are of no use in today’s warfare theory. Dispirited, the old man starts thinking about his encounter with Kim Jong-un a few years earlier.

On the way to an inspection site, the Marshall had stopped to eat grilled potatoes with Oh Seong-gwon’s military unit and shared some of his thoughts on the way to uphold the revolutionary ideals of his father and grandfather. When Oh Deok-chan’s book is finally published, Kim Jong-un is surprised to find that the young man did not include his father among the reviewers. He proceeds to meet with Oh Deok-chan and explains to him the importance of learning from previous generations.

Swimming Pool at Pyongyang’s Changgwangwon bathhouse. | Image: Tongilnews

All three stories depict Kim Jong-un as a benevolent leader, frugal and close to the people, traveling the country to give people guidance: an image that would surely sound familiar to any readers of suryeong hyeongsang literature. But the way the Marshall is portrayed is not a mere imitation of the characters of his father and grandfather, and a closer look at these texts can reveal some interesting facts about the way the new Leader is presented to the North Korean people.

Kim Jong-il’s Legacy | The physical resemblance between Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-un had led some to speculate that the new Leader was trying to appeal to the memory of his grandfather rather than to his father’s legacy. However, while Kim Il-sung is often mentioned in the three texts, Kim Jong-il appears as the dominant figure–mirroring changes observed in other forms or propaganda–and Kim Jong-un is depicted as a devoted follower of his father’s vision. Furthermore, the fact that the army stands at the center of these stories is enough to remind us that Kim Jong-il’s Songun, or “military-first politics” (선군정치), is still alive and well on Kim Jong-un’s agenda.

“Let’s make a swimming pool with a paddling pool too and some sports facilities like a table tennis room. And wouldn’t it be nice if we also added a restaurant so that the factory workers can have some cold drinks and play go, Korean chess or computer games when they spend their break here?” The people of the factory could only be surprised by these words of the respected comrade Kim Jong-un who was going to build facilities of the like of Pyongyang’s Changgwangwon in this remote mountainous region of the Northwest.

– “Gratitude,” Yoon Kyeong-chan

Toward a Society of Leisure? |  In 2012, professor Kim Seong-su singled out the “discourse on improving the citizen’s lives” (inmin saenghwal hyangsang damnon; 인민생활 형상 담론) as one of the trends of literature at the end of Kim Jong-il’s era and the beginning of Kim Jong-un’s, which meant that light industry and daily necessities became the object of more literary interest. This trend is still going strong in 2013, and even seems to have taken another step.

Going beyond the improvement of citizen’s material lives, these new stories present the image of a leader who adds the circenses to the panem. “The Promise of Fire” deals with a spectacular firework. In “Gratitude,” after Kim Jong-un is informed that the “welfare facilities” being built in Bukseong will include a hair salon and a beauty parlor, the Marshall immediately suggests to add a swimming pool, a computer game room and a table tennis room. This shows a peculiar concern for leisure and entertainment, which might very well be a corollary to the construction of the Masik Ski Pass project, undertaken earlier this year “to provide the people with more wonderful cultural living conditions.”

“Masik speed,” North Korea’s new buzzword since June, has indeed already made its way into literature and criticism. The literary journal Munhak Shinmun republished Kim Jong-un’s Masik speech on its front page and before long, a few poems about the ski pass appeared in the pages of the journal, while stories such as Min Kyeong-suk’s “Fruits” (Yeolmae; 열매) were singled out for praise for exemplifying the combative spirit of “Masik speed.”

No piece of prose fiction seems yet to have been written about the works undertaken at the ski pass itself, but perhaps the subject is being kept aside for a full-length novel, in the continuity of the Immortal Guidance (bulmyeolui hyangdo; 불멸의 향도) and Immortal History (bulmyeolui ryeoksa; 불멸의 력사) series about Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung.

The word ‘ski’ so unfamiliar to our ears / The word ‘ski’ that seemed so remote from our lives / Is now familiar to our ears and rings throughout our lives / Ho how nice will our future be

– “Outside the bus window, inside the bus window,” Ryu Myeong-ho[5]