How to Succeed in North Korea
by Richardson ~ September 27th, 2006. Filed under: Kim Jong-il. 
One path turns out to be the same as in the West, although with a drastically smaller chance of success; sports!* From Reuters, Kim Jong-il lavishes gifts on women:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il lavished luxury cars and apartments on female footballers who won the recent under-20 world championship, according to the country’s media.
North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday that Kim had rewarded the players for their crushing 5-0 win over China in the tournament final in Moscow earlier this month.
“Kim Jong-il bestowed high honour upon (the) young women footballers and presented them with such gifts which they would hand down through generations as deluxe cars and buses and flats,” KCNA said.
North Korea’s media gave much of the credit to Kim himself for instilling a sense of “courage” into the players while KCNA described the triumph as an “ideological” victory.
The players demonstrated their “transparent spirit of devotedly defending the leader (Kim),” trumpeted KCNA, as well as the “spirit of defending the country and the spirit of waging dynamic ideological and fighting spirit battles.”
The practice of rewarding successful athletes with lavish gifts is common in North Korea despite widespread hunger across the impoverished communist state. (Writing by Alastair Himmer in Tokyo)
*Although in North Korea it’s also a way to get yourself into trouble:
1966: DPRK went to World Cup quarterfinal
* The day before the game they went to a bar and didn’t perform well the next day and lost. When they returned to DPRK they were disappeared. A famous player was sent to concentration camp. In order to survive he ate all the bugs he could find. He especially like cockroaches, hence his name “cockroach”.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
He’s just trying to butter them up before he deflowers them.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Do people really pass “deluxe cars & buses” down to the next generation?
What would these footballers want with a bus anyway?
September 27th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
The cars and buses might be traded away for something they could use - like food in the future - since fuel isn’t really that available. And some of it could just be KNCA hype (propaganda).
September 27th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
For North Korean athletes, it could be do or die. No wonder they try so hard.
September 28th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
How come Nork propaganda posters are still stuck in the 1950s? One of the biggest shocks for North Koreans after the regime falls may be the sophistication of contemporary art and advertising!
September 28th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
These pics are of the same style, but from books published in ‘82 and ‘84;
http://www.dprkstudies.org/documents/nkpics/picgal.html
September 28th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Lack of competitive PR market, operating on supply and demand, may have something to do with it.
For the same reason Bulgarian shoes, East German sedans and (until recently) Chinese suits were stuck in the ’50’s.
By the way, I do find it ironic that communism fell because no one wanted to wear Bulgarian shoes, yet today the once vaunted English shoemaking industry has largely relocated to Eastern Europe (and India).
We in the West take the Fall of the Berlin Wall for granted too much.
September 30th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Do you think The Great Leader would be willing to coach the U.S. men’s basketball team? We sure could use him.