|
North Korea, which defines the U.S. as a 100-year-long enemy, begins its anti-America education from primary school. Shinchon in Hwanghae Province, where many were sacrificed during the Korean War, is a living anti-America indoctrination zone. Visitors there are schooled in a deep hatred of the U.S. Few countries engage in such burning anti-America training as North Korea. Not too long ago it was absolutely unimaginable that the Stars and Stripes would be hung and the "Star-Strangled Banner" would be played in a public hall in Pyongyang, the capital of such a nation.
Foreign media outlets view the New York Philharmonic's Pyongyang concert as indicative of a change going on in North Korea. It's a repeat of the music and table tennis diplomacy that melted the former Soviet Union and China, some said. Peering into the inner workings of the concert, however, shows an aspect of the North's inner heart that is different from the past. Rather than something to be feared, the North Korean leadership has begun to look at the U.S. as an obstacle to be overcome.
According to Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party who defected to the South, the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung often said that North Korea should not fight a war against the U.S. Influenced by his late father, Kim Jong-il also dreads the U.S. Though it always called for a sacred war against the U.S., the North Korean leadership itself could not sleep in the face of threatened U.S. military attack. During the initial period of the Iraq War, in particular, the leadership, including Kim Jong-il, reportedly lived in an underground bunker for a month. But when the Bush administration was cornered by the war, the North found that Washington no longer intends to hold it in check by force and it did not therefore have to dread the U.S. Instead of a purely defensive strategy, the North sought ways of actively dealing with it.
North Korea's lectures to its public on America have also been changing recently. Unlike the past when they demanded a merciless retaliation against the U.S., the leadership now uses the U.S. as a means of elevating North Korea's status. The former Soviet Union and China, self-claimed suzerainties of communism, were helpless before America, the reasoning goes, so North Korea is now assuming their role.
The Pyongyang authorities stress to the public that in all the world only North Korea is capable of confronting the U.S. The Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang serves to underpin this assertion and elevate Kim Jong-il's status.
North Korea holds a succession of musical events in February and April, commemorating Kim Jong-il's and Kim Il-sung's birthdays. The New York Philharmonic's concert has emerged as one of them. The North will play up the propaganda that America, which attempted to isolate and crush to death the North through military and economic pressure, has finally succumbed to the "guts" of the "dear general." When former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung visited Pyongyang, the North made it seem as if he did so to surrender himself to Kim Jong-il out of adoration. Nonetheless, the Philharmonic's performance carries a meaning, but not in table tennis or music diplomacy.
North Koreans vent on America all their grievances over the dead of the Korean War. They also believe that millions of their countrymen starved to death because of the U.S., and that the U.S. blocks Korea's unification. A considerable portion of this deeply-rooted anti-American sentiment is expected to be cleared away thanks to the recent concert. The paradoxical value of the recital in Pyongyang lies in that it may prompt North Koreans to dispel their misunderstandings of the U.S. rather than help the Kim Jong-il regime allay its fear of America.
This column was contributed by Kang Chul-hwan, a North Korean defector and Chosun Ilbo reporter on North Korean affairs.
|
