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.The usual plots describe South Korean or American perfidyand end with a victory for the KPA.For refreshment, a growing number of street kiosks sell locally produceddrinks such as cola from the Kyongryon Aeguk Carbonated Drink Factory,and Calpis, a sweet milky water, as well as Taedonggang Beer.Fruit flavoureddrinks are popular, including pear, as is omija, a milky drink made frombeans; in addition, locally produced and somewhat flavourless ice cream isavailable.26 North KoreaHolidays are rare events despite a long list of anniversaries and commem-orative occasions.Four or five days annual holiday appears to be the normaround Kim Jong-il s birthday, the anniversary of the DPRK s founding andKim Il-sung s birthday, when children are given biscuits and confectioneryby their parents.One year many residents of Pyongyang were given winterblankets and clocks, while soldiers were given wristwatches.11 On these rareoccasions Pyongyang s parks and riverside are crowded and street kiosksdo good business.Sunday is  walking day , with public transport schedulescurtailed.Live music is often performed by Art Propaganda Troupes singingpopular ballads (pansori) espousing revolutionary sentiments.In 2003 thegovernment launched a walking campaign, urging students to walk to schooland people to walk to work for  health reasons.Home entertainment consists largely of television, which has becomemore widespread though it remains strictly censored by the powerfulPropaganda and Agitation Department of the KWP, which issues monthlyguidelines for media coverage.Citizens are required to report purchases ofradios and television sets.The authorities control the channels, and havebeen known to make inspections to ensure sets are not tuned to anythingother than official programming.With the exception of certain social cat-egories, possession of foreign books, magazines and newspapers is forbidden.However, some news of the outside world does filter through in a limitedway via illegal short-wave radios.The popularity of South Korean songs andolder Japanese ballads, dismissed by the leadership as  crooning tunes , andtheir distribution in recent years is one sign of this.There are other signs that DPRK society may be changing.The Japanesenewspaper Sankei Shimbun obtained a leaked sixteen-page KWP document12circulated to senior officials in 2002, which contained ideas to be drawn uponin public speeches.The document stated:  Women are putting foreign-stylemake-up on their lips and eyelashes, and wearing  short skirts. It added thatdivorce was increasing and that fortune-tellers were becoming popular.Thedocument also revealed that those with radios were increasingly listening tobroadcasts from South Korea and other neighbouring countries, while youngpeople were memorising South Korean songs and bragging about it.Sometimes change can be small but revealing.In 2003 Kim Jong-ilofficially raised the bun allocation to North Korean universities so theycould introduce hamburgers onto the menu.13 Additionally, in October 2003Pyongyang s first chewing gum factory opened.Gum had been seen as auseless capitalist product but the new factory claims to be producing 1,200tonnes annually.Other signs of change include reports that a GSM mobilephone network will operate nationwide by 2007 and now covers Pyongyang,Nampo and Rason Free Port.The DPRK claims that 2,000 mobile handsetsA Normal Day in Pyongyang 27were sold in Pyongyang between November 2002 and August 2003.14 Andafter several years of virtually no Internet access (despite some connectionsvia Shenyang in China) KCNA announced the launch of a new Internetservice in 2003 to be operated by the North s International CommunicationsCentre and supposedly guaranteeing secure email for no charge.15While changes such as lipstick, chewing gum and pop songs may be signsof a more divergent society, the fact that use of mobile phones and theInternet is restricted solely to the elite, rather than demonstrating structuralreform, merely reflects how an entrenched elite can sidestep the collapsingstate infrastructure as their needs become acute.Living in the Land of Perfect BlissClearly North Korea is a country of hardship and deprivation for mostcitizens.In October 1962 at the First Session of the Third Supreme People sAssembly Kim Il-sung stated that  everyone will live in tile-roof houses witha hot bowl of rice and beef soup every meal after the completion of thefollowing seven-year development plan. Kim also stated in 1979 that theDPRK was a country where  our people are enjoying a happy life to the full,without any worries about food, clothing, medical treatment and education.There is no better  paradise and no better  land of perfect bliss than ourcountry. Clearly these aims have not been realised.Pyongyang remainsorderly, as indeed does most of North Korea compared to the crowds thatthrong China s increasingly market-driven and sophisticated streets.Gener-ally quiet and clean streets are the hallmark of Pyongyang in contrast toBeijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which, while remaining nominally com-munist, have massive commercial centres with a plethora of small businessesand bustle.The contrast with Seoul is even starker.Democracy is, of course,completely absent; though people may know their own local representative,they rarely have much idea who governs even neighbouring districts.Health care in Pyongyang is a growing problem, with a lack of antibioticsand basic medical equipment such as stethoscopes and bandages.Althoughhospitals are reported to be generally clean, supplies are low and equipmentis antiquated.Traditional and herbal medicine has become increasingly reliedupon, with modern pharmaceuticals scarce.Power shortages affect hospitalstoo: the Red Cross estimates that only 50 per cent of essential operationsare carried out during the winter months, when temperatures in Pyongyangcan reach  20ºC.Most hospitals are overburdened.Sariwon Hospital nearPyongyang, for example, which covers a catchment area of 1.6 million people,is reportedly short on energy, medicines and ambulances.16 In the 1990s, as28 North Koreawell as famine, North Korea saw tuberculosis and cholera epidemics, alongwith rising rates of hepatitis, malaria, dysentery and general problems associ-ated with vitamin deficiency and what aid agencies call  severe nutritionaldistress.Poor drinking water means the level of waterborne diseases is high,as is that of respiratory and other diseases associated with pollution.That personal hygiene is also becoming an increasing problem due to theshortages is apparent in the government s  Cabinet Decision No.20 , call-ing for the eradication of fleas and lice, apparently a major problem.Also,hygiene is affected by water shortages and the closure of many public baths,which were once common across the country.According to the UN Officefor the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in North Korea, only25 50 per cent of the population can rely on piped water, with many pipesbroken or contaminated and community wells not functioning.For those who do question the system in North Korea the penalties arestiff.For North Koreans political re-education camps are a real threat, alongwith torture and forced labour.Estimates of the number of such camps rangefrom ten to fifteen large-scale institutions holding in total between 200,000and 250,000 prisoners [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]