‘Socialist luxury’: the doublethink at work in Kim Jong-un’s North Korea
The value of imported luxury goods to North Korea has more than doubled since Marshall Kim Jong-un succeeded his father as leader. These distorted priorities would almost be funny if it weren’t all so tragic.
It’s hardly surprising. I mean, how could the glitterati of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea be expected to hit the slopes of their brand new “world class ski resort” if they aren’t able to drive there in swanky sedans, sporting fancy watches or clutching fine leather handbags?
And seriously, what is the point of apres-ski if you can’t relax in a sauna, then down a double malt on the rocks, while your glamorous comrade-partner wafts into the bar in a cloud of expensive French fragrance?
I present you with a glimpse inside the warped mind of 31-year-old Marshall Kim.
Saunas, handbags and watches
Today we learn that the “Champagne Stalinism” – which has become the bizarre hallmark of his leadership – is actually reflected in North Korean trade statistics.
South Korean government data from Seoul’s Ministry of Unification show a surge in the value of imported items such as (wait for it): pets and pet food, saunas, perfume, high-end alcohol, handbags, watches, bathroom fittings, cars and electronics.
A report, presented to the South Korean parliament by Yoon Sang-hyun – of the ruling Saenuri Party – states that the value of these imports rose to US$645.8m last year. This is more than double the value of luxury imports in 2011 when the late Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il was still in charge.
Mr Yoon told his parliament that “the products were given as gifts to key figures in North Korean society to ensure their loyalty to the regime.” In contrast, the Masik Pass ski resort – like the aqua park, the dolphinarium and the ice rink which all featured in Channel 4 News’s exclusive report – were designed to buy off the DPRK’s proletarians.
Superficially, it’s all very amusing, but in a country where political prisoners (and their entire families) break rocks and starve, and where more than a quarter of all children have had their growth stunted by malnutrition, this is sickening.
In my report on the ski resort, filmed by Swiss journalist Marc Wolfenberger, you get a sense that everyone he interviewed was almost reading from a script, looking over their shoulder. It’s almost as though they had a gun to their head, cowering in fear and paranoia amid the insanity of the dystopian world into which they were condemned to have been born.
YSL and Johnnie Walker
Instead of providing what the 24 million people who live in his Kim family gulag actually need, “The Marshall” – of whom they all speak so sycophantically – has brought them appallingly inappropriate samplers from an alien world… as a treat – and to buy loyalty.
First came the nuclear programme. Then the dolphinarium. Now the ski resort. Thank you, Supreme Commander, the Great Successor, respected comrade, famed for your leadership, your grit and your courage. But sadly not your wisdom.
It is widely thought – although never proved for certain – that Kim Jong-un attended a private school in Switzerland during the 1990s, under a false identity. It’s possible that ths is where he was first attracted to the charms of the piste.
Just over 10 years ago, while making a documentary about his father, I interviewed Kim Jong-il’s former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, in Japan. He claims that young Jong-un had a penchant for the lavish lifestyle, which included his smoking Yves Saint Laurent brand cigarettes and drinking Johnnie Walker whiskey.
Now, it seems, Kim Jong-un wants to share the joy of his hedonistic habits, by providing his hungry people a taste of the high-life. And if you thought Dubai’s ski dome was weird, Marshall Kim’s raised the stakes.
‘Doublethink’
In his novel “1984” – which is the best possible guidebook for navigating the insanity of North Korea – George Orwell coined the term “doublethink.” Doublethink is an intrinsically hypocritical concept of cognitive dissonance, requiring people to embrace two contradictory concepts at the same time without question.
In the ski resort film, an employee of the Pyongyang dolphinarium unwittingly hints at the North Korean version of doublethink: “The intention of Marshall Kim Jong-un is to show his love for the people by bringing us socialist luxury”” says dolphinarium guide Li Yun Hui.
Doublethink was a tool of the state in Orwell’s Big Brother world. It was central to the retention of the iron power of the Party and it worked by control and manipulation of reality. Doublethink underpinned the slogans of the Party: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.
Today, Doublethink remains a tool of the state in Kim Jong-un’s weird and bleak world. It is as if Pyongyang’s own Ministry of Truth is employing Orwell’s grim vision as its template for government.
No wonder our very own John Sparks was struggling when he went looking for the real North Korea.
It wouldn’t have surprised me in the slighted had his film, which we broadcast tonight, begun with the words: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
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