Arirang: Propaganda Fiasco, Waste of Manpower

You’d think most people “open-minded” enough to fork money over to North Korea would be the idea target audience for the regime’s propaganda, but the bad press keeps flowing in, most recently from the superb Yi Sun Shin blog:

Now, as for the Mass Games themselves, they were equally impressive and bizarre, spectacular and disturbing. As I watched with rapt attention at the near perfection of movement by hundreds if not thousands of performers on the field and their living backdrop in the opposite stands, I was thinking about the discipline, skill and commitment necessary to pull it all off ““ and wondering if that was really the best way to utilize the human capital in Pyongyang.

The display of regimented mass dehumanization appears to have convinced many that what they’ve heard about this regime is true. More here and here. The other theme that emerged from the media delegation that visited North Korea for Arirang is that the economy, reform, and infrastructure all appear to be crumbling as the regime shows a growing fear of opening windows to the outside.

But the question I’ve always had about Arirang is the extent to which it diverted manpower and resources from the more pressing need to produce food. We’re learning the answer to that question, too.