New York Philharmonic Dividends
by Richardson ~ March 6th, 2008. Filed under: Defectors & Refugees, Diplomacy, Engagement, Human Rights.Now over three months past the deadline, still no nuclear declaration from North Korea:
Rice urged China to press North Korea to disclose its nuclear programs so that the stalled accord can move forward…
And dark, probably true allegations:
North Korea earlier this week publicly executed 15 of its citizens for trying to flee the country by crossing the Tumen River on the border with China, a South Korean human rights organization reported on Wednesday.
What did the apologist NY Philharmonic director, Lorin Maazel, say before going?
“I think it would have been a great mistake not to accept their invitation,” he said after arriving at the Pyongyang airport.
“I am a musician and not a politician. Music has always traditionally been an arena, an area where people make contact. It’s neutral, it’s entertainment, it’s person to person,” Maazel said.
Sometimes engagement is useless.
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
FYI,
My humble opinion on the subject
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7b7e2608-f8d8-11dc-bcf3-000077b07658.html
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Prof. Lankov,
I’d have agreed with you about the NY Phil if Loren Maazel hadn’t made himself an ass and a volunteer propagandist for the North Koreans. As with previous K-pop concerts in Pyongyang, and I’ve seen zero evidence that bombarding North Koreans with a completely alien cultural experience and no context made any difference. We’re speaking of a place, after all, where most people have never even heard of punk, blues, or reggae. Even so, if we can ever have the kind of cultural exchange that actually reaches ordinary North Koreans, I’ll agree that it’s a net positive, albeit a modest one.
By contrast, plenty of defectors cite broadcasting as making a difference. So I agree with you completely there.
But I think you miss the significance of financially isolating the regime. I don’t think anyone can argue that cultural exchanges or broadcasting is making as much of a difference as the smuggling of cell phones, DVD’s, and South Korean consumer goods into the North. All of this is happenning more or less spontaneously, at no cost to the taxpayers. Here is your revolution from below. And you can’t ignore what made that possible, which is the decay in the regime’s financial resources. Surely you must agree that the regime would raise the pay of its corrupt and demoralized border guards and build more border fencing if it could afford to do those things. The regime is losing control of its borders in spite of crackdowns and executions because it doesn’t have enough money to feed the population of Pyongyang, much less regain control.
Plenty of us “hard-liners” favor cultural exchanges and humanitarian aid. We just insist that those things actually reach the people who need them. Personally, I’d like nothing more than to show the North Koreans that we’re not really the baby-killing untermenschen the regime portrays us to be. But as long as the regime won’t permit that, starving the regime of funds has the best record of success at opening its borders.
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
Dr. Lankov,
Thank you for taking the time to comment here.
I will have to agree with Joshua, particularly;
I also think Haggard and Noland were onto something with the potential use of sanctions that hit the regime elite.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am
The NY Philharmonic’s visit to N Korea was not only a courageous thing to do but an incredibile public relations communication!
April 28th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I guess you have a different definition for, “courageous” than me.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
You are actually right. It was an incredible public relations communication. You do know what public relations really means, right? Look up Edward Bernays. He renamed propaganda campaigns as “public relations”. So yes, it was incredible propaganda.