Say what you will about North Korea, at least they're authentically Korean

Tron

The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and of course The Telegraph. I can't tell them apart these days. This article could have been in any of them.

rjohns16

Yip, was amazed when I read that too. Totalitarianism is ok if it preserves an 'authentic' way of life for - as the article certainly reads - the amusement/entertainment of Westerners? Who can go marvel at the 'Koreaness' from afar as the inhabitants starve, or, if they ever get in, leave when they feel hungry. Madness.

severn

You are absolutely right. And the mental wrench the article inflicts on one is painful.

But it makes a good point of comparison with the effect on the informed person of reading the Spectator on climate change or HIV. Same disconnect from reality.

John T

@Burch. Not pointless at all. Only this week one of the Guardian's deranged columnists rubbished Vaclav Havel for vandalising the communist utopias of Eastern Europe.

Chris B

Hey, he has a point. I've been deriding the loss of American culture ever since the king was replaced by the president, the musket gave way to the rifle, the powdered wig fell out of style, slavery was repealed by the 13th Amendment, and railroads replaced horse-drawn carriages. We no longer live in America! We live in its ugly, inbred, grossly mutated great grandchild. The horror!

Pete

Not only a revolting passage, but inaccurate. Pyongyang has absolutely NOT gone it alone - NK's economy would be even more of a basket case without decades of support from Beijing.

Tom Youngren

It was ever thus. The spectacle of poor people enjoying themselves without the instruction of their betters has always been unpleasant viewing for those self same betters, but should we want it any other way? Please understand, this American writes sarcastically.

Arturo

Manic. To think that somehow preserving traditions and safeguarding "Koreanness" is an acceptable exchange for totalitarianism and isolationism at it's extreme. North Korea's historicity aside, the notion alone is reprehensible.

JTE

So apparently a brutal, warmongering totalitarian police state and massive food insecurity is a small price to pay for having to put up with relatively less consumerist kitch in downtown Pyongyang. Right.

Archibald

Burch epitomizes the tribal nature of British politics. We're on the cusp of dangerous extremism, supporting 'our' side like a football team. Is it still democracy when the majority of voters have no idea of the facts but hate the other 'team'? I don't think so. Centralization of party power has screwed our parliament somewhat, but the future must lie in reform of party influence and MPs doing what they are elected for. The cretins that populate this land certainly can't be trusted with anything, something the internet age has brutally exposed. It's called the mother of all parliaments for a reason, it needs to start defending itself much more forcefully instead of pandering to idiots and bowing to media populism.

The Arcadian

Its a multilayered delusion that most likely assumes that the conflict with Korea is really the west's fault and that the NK people are better off being free of western imperialism. Note the complete lack of consistent logic in even these two ideas.

Patrick

Luckily, now that the cold war is over you see a lot less of this nonsense in print. During the cold war, there was of course plenty of it. It always seems that the people who pen romantic tributes to the pluckiness of, say, Cuba, have some sort of axe to grind against the rampant individualism (known to most of us as freedom) of America.

unclesmrgol

To understand "authentic Korean", get onto youtube and search for "north korean traffic lady". "In war, they could be dropped behind enemy lines to mis-direct supply convoys. No other nation has this technology. It is a huge advantage."

Alex

"India’s attempt to go it alone failed. So, it seems, has Burma’s. Perhaps inevitably, North Korea’s attempt appears to be tottering. But seeing how South Korea has turned out — its Koreanness utterly submerged in neon, hip-hop and every imaginable American influence, a romantic can allow himself a small measure of melancholy: North Korea, for all its faults, is undeniably still Korea, a place uniquely representative of an ancient and rather remarkable Asian culture. And that, in a world otherwise rendered so bland, is perhaps no bad thing."

And if i were to say the same thing about what England has been turned into, the land of foreign cultures and religions, land of Americanised nonsense like hip hop, etc. I'd be labeled by the Guardian as racist.

This only goes to show that the left like multi-culturalism only when it destroys indigenous European culture.

Ross

Not only is it revolting, but he appears to have stolen the idea from noted North Korean apologist Bruce Cumings who has previously written:

" Does this system promote human freedom? Not from any liberal's standpoint. But from a Korean standpoint, where freedom is also defined as an independent stance against foreign predators—freedom for the Korean nation—here, the vitriolic judgments do not flow so easily. This is a cardinal virtue among a people that has preserved its integrity and continuity in the same place since the early Christian era … After all, there is one undeniable freedom in North Korea, and that is the freedom to be Korean."

moron

Say what you will about rape, at least it's sex.
Say what you will about a heart attack, at least it means your heart is beating.
Say what you will about a child's death, at least there will be a meal.

RCE

Alex @ 10:07 - you beat me to it.

Oscar

But Kim didn't want to be left alone, he complained about feeling ronery, did he not?

Teacher in Tejas

Damn this guy makes a great point about North Korea. This Anglo-phile Yank would like to add that England sure hasn't been the same since that William the Conqueror showed up! England used to be England until then. (sarcasm off now)

C*B

Winchester lists himself as a 'traveler' who spends most of his time in the U.S., that land of indigenous peoples trying to protect themselves -- go it alone -- by stopping the flow of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. But Winchester sees this 'going it alone' as a sign of U.S. right-wing racism. So, say what you will about the neon and hip hop, at least it still draws immigrants, a continuingly useful literary device for Winchester's essays on the bigotries of his adopted home, which is important if you want to keep selling pieces to the Guardian and the Independent. And no wonder the poor missionary lad is compelled to live in a gated community in that colonial wasteland. For one thing, it is impossible to get good tea and cable TV on the indigenous reservations there.

Jennie Kermode

What you need, my friend, is a holiday in Cambodia.

ChurchSox

Let's turn this around:

"But seeing how Los Angeles has turned out -- its Americanness utterly submerged in barbeques, karaoke clubs, Asian groceries and every imaginable Korean influence, a romantic can allow himself a small measure of melancholy..."

Hey, this is fun.

But seeing how Pyongyang has turned out, its Koreanness utterly submerged in gawdawful architecture, statues of its leaders pointing to the future, and every imaginable crappy Stalinist influence, a romantic can allow himself a small measure of melancholy..."

What an elegantly framed argument against diversity... and from the Grauniad, no less.

bingbing

I live in Korea, am married to a Korean, and I'll really try to hold back, but comments like Mick Hartley's and Winchester's make my blood boil.

We're talking about a nation that has had it soul split in half with this communist pap, and these halfwits have the gall to romanticise it.

Krasnaya

Mr. Winchester is one more useful tool of the communist. Alas, wishes he were living under the glorious times of comrade Stalin where he could enjoy all the fruits of unblemished communal life in a free soviet republic.

Oh yes he lives in NYC and MA. How appropriate. These lands are already tinged red.

D. Kim

Absolutely ridiculous. The columnist makes a grave error in assuming that "juche" or "songun politics" -- both creations of the Kim family of the last couple of decades -- might have anything to do with Koreanness. To make such an assumption is an insult to all Koreans, a people belonging to a nation that goes back millennia true Koreanness. Rather, Winchester should just state the obvious: "I resent the United States and its leading role in globalization."