Watching Porn in Pyongyang (Part 2)

Because man cannot live on diverted food aid and crystal meth alone:

The demand for X-rated movies among North Korea’s high cadres is so great that a single VCD sells for 50 US dollars.

The latest publication of Good Friends, a North Korea-related aid organization, tells the story of Mr. Park, a resident of Hyesan, Yangkang Province. Mr. Park was arrested for making copies of South Korean adult movies–called “colored movies” in North Korea–and selling them in Pyongyang. Despite the high price per VCD, the publication notes that supplies are getting tight.

“Mr. Park bought the CDs near the North Korean- Chinese border from China. Then he would make his friend in Pyonsung, South Pyongan Province copy them and to sell them to traders in Pyongyang,” reported the publication. [Daily NK]

Anyone who is willing to pay fifty bucks a tape for the kind of soft-core, low-budget pabulum that’s featured in South Korean yogwans must be awfully desperate — and not for food, either.

It’s not the first such report I’ve seen, although I suspect that seeing South Korean porn would probably reinforce the regime’s propaganda about the South.