North Korea is a real country, with real people, says John Everard
"North Korea is a real
country with real people getting on with their lives," said John Everard,
former British ambassador to North Korea, to a full-house audience at a Korean Studies
Program (KSP) lunchtime seminar on October 8, 2010. In his introduction of
Everard, David Straub, KSP's associate director, noted the lack of reliable
information about North Korea. Official government information is limited and
everyday life is perhaps even less understood. Everard, who served in North
Korea from 2006-2008, offered a firsthand perspective of ordinary people living
inside North Korea, giving a very human dimension to a country often regarded
only as a closed military state.
The darker side of life in North Korea is poverty, which is more acute now than
in earlier decades. Everard stated that North Korea was ahead of South Korea
economically until the 1970s and that the universal healthcare system put in
place by Kim Il-sung was initially effective. The World Health Organization now
provides most medical care in North Korea. Agriculture, once mechanized, has
largely reverted to animal power and hunger, though not at famine level as it
was in the 1990s, is still a major issue.
Leisure and social time also play a part of life in North Korea. People in
Pyongyang frequent coffee shops and throughout the country neighbors gather for
lively games of chess. Everard explained that daily activities like talking
with family and friends are just as much a part of life in North Korea as they
are in other parts of the world.
A bigger difference in North Korean society is the degree to which piety to the
leading regime and service to the government is significantly integrated into
life. Newly married couples, for example, will wear badges bearing images of
Kim Il-sung pinned to their formal wedding clothes and lay flowers before a
statue of the deceased leader. More than such customs though, Everard noted,
North Korea's military service requirement has the biggest impact on people.
Not only is the duration of eight to ten years significantly longer than the required
one to two years of most countries, military life is also very strenuous.
Social attitudes in North Korea are changing, as are attitudes toward the
outside world. Employees from North Korea now work for South Korean companies
within the successful Kaesong Industrial Zone, which opened in 2004. Foreign
goods, such as clothing, have also made their way into North Korea. People,
suggested Everard, are beginning to modestly aspire to own more material
possessions, like bicycles, and to learn more about the customs and cultures of
other parts of the world.
Everard spoke about North Korea's relations with other countries. China has a
natural interest in the stability of North Korea-its neighbor to the
northeast-for its own welfare and it therefore supports it economically and
politically. Despite a large Russian Federation embassy in Pyongyang, relations
with Russia are not as strong as they were with the old Soviet Union, Everard
said. Although the United States is officially regarded as an aggressor and an
enemy, most people Everard met with did not express animosity toward Americans.
"There is an openness toward warm relations with Americans if political
relations improve," he said.
Everard described the curiosity expressed by North Koreans who asked him about
life in the United States-about everything ranging from music to social
conditions. Audience members-from the United States, China, Japan, South Korea,
and numerous other countries-asked him an equally broad range of questions,
demonstrating that perhaps there is an equal amount of curiosity and
willingness to connect both inside and outside of North Korea.
John Everard is KSP's 2010-2011 Pantech Fellow. The David Straub, generously funded by the Pantech Group of Korea, are intended to cultivate a diverse international community of scholars and professionals committed to and capable of grappling with challenges posed by developments in Korea.
