Every year, thousands of USBs containing South Korean and Western media are smuggled into North Korea, using road, sea and air to get the devices across the Korean demilitarised zone. The audience in North Korea is isolated, sharing a language and history with South Korea, but with a vastly different understanding of Korean culture.
In an exploration of “the in-between-ness” (Seigworth and Gregg 2010) of North Korean life, the feelings and compulsions of those who trade and consume as part of an elaborate web of smuggling and cultural exchange between North and South are particularly apt for the anthropological study of affect. Many defectors talk of their creeping awareness of the Western world as a stimulus to action and escape from the regime, but it is clear there is a subtle tug-of-war between the luxuries of commodity and the luxury of freedom of thought in the North Korean defector narrative, and both are key to understanding the ‘affective bloom-space of an ever-processual materiality’ (Seigworth and Gregg 2010, p8) of defection.
Since the succession of the third supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, there have been reports of a state-wide crackdown on the black-market trade of media and goods from the outside world. Those who seek foreign films, television and goods do so at considerable risk to themselves and their families. However, many defectors cite the influence of viewing foreign media in their decision to make the dangerous journey to the South and, surprisingly, even those who claim to have not seen South Korean media believe its influence (Chung 2019).
Footage of two North Korean girls captured by Asia Press International and shown in the PBS Frontline documentary “The Secret State of North Korea” encapsulates the frisson of excitement of viewing South Korean media, as they point out cars and clothes with wonder. However, this mood is also shown to be precarious, as the girls scramble to cover up their clandestine activities as soon as they hear a noise outside
By contrast, the North Korean activist and author Park Yeon-mi often mentions watching Titanic as a key turning point in her relationship with her birth country. Discussing the blockbuster film, Park was not as much struck by its high production value or mesmerising special-effects, as she was captivated by the idea that a person could sacrifice themselves for their romantic love – not just for their country.
An individual’s decision to defect cannot be simply understood in terms of a specific life event, more instructive is seeking out ‘the Janus face of suffering in the passing comments, exclamations, statements made out of despair, sighs, interrupted sentences, ironic phrases, laughter, and the like.’ (Navaro-Yashin 2013, p117). In doing so, we notice the many nuances of affect in the North Korean experience, as they engage with foreign media and the outside world and begin to have a greater understanding of their positions within both.
References:
Chung, Ka Young. (2019) Media as soft power: the role of the South Korean media in North Korea, The Journal of International Communication, 25:1, 137-157
Navaro-Yashin, Y. (2003). ‘Life is dead here’: Sensing the political in ‘no man’s land’. Anthropological Theory. 3(1), 107-125.
Seigworth, G. and Gregg, M. (2010). ‘An Inventory of Shimmers’. Introduction to The Affect Theory Reader. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Linked References:
https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org
https://nksc.us (North Korea Strategy Center US)
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/north-korea/
http://www.asiapress.org/rimjin-gang/2019/07/society-economy/cinema-crowd/
http://www.asiapress.org/rimjin-gang/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/north-korea-defector-titanic
anthropology of infrastructure 2019 