Word: pyongyang
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...more than a decade, ever since the first nuclear deal reached between the U.S. and North Korea fell apart, it has been an article of faith among Washington diplomats that with just the right configuration of carrots and sticks, Pyongyang could be enticed to stand down its nuclear weapons and begin to be drawn out of international isolation. That belief prompted the Bush Administration to jettison its first-term approach of diplomatic disdain and economic sanctions, and instead embrace, along with its partners in East Asia, a policy of engagement with the North - which culminated in another nuclear deal with...
...would Pyongyang make such a change? As usual, parsing the reasons the North Korean government does anything is murky business. But Pyongyang watchers in Seoul believe the crackdown comes for two main reasons. First, there has been a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in North Korea, partly due to the prevalence of relatively free markets, says Cheong Seong-chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in Seoul. Since 2000, the bigger traders in North Korea have come to live a life "almost as lavish as South Koreans," says Cheong. "They have big refrigerators...
...second reason for the crackdown - as ever with Pyongyang - is control. The government allowed black markets to proliferate this decade out of desperation, but they had grown to the point where the leadership may have begun to feel threatened. Small traders and black markets existed outside of government control, and by definition at some point the regime was not going to tolerate that, analysts say. "The breakaway, snowballing market is a threat to the regime," says Lim Kang-taeg, senior research fellow at the Korean Institute for National Unification, a government-sponsored think tank in Seoul. "This is a significant...
...PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA Pyongyang International Film Festival An outgrowth of nonaligned propaganda, this biennial event, set to return in September 2010, is the best opportunity for filmmakers to make their mark on the Hermit Kingdom (supposedly with the blessing of No. 1 movie fan Kim Jong Il). Festivalgoers may be closely monitored, with ceremonies fronted by cheerleading Kimettes, but filmmaker Nick Bonner, whose Koryo Tours helps organize the festival and foreign guests, says "the impact is stunning" - as when masses of North Koreans crowded to view Bend it Like Beckham. See pyongyanginternationalfilmfestival.com...
...countries that have never before been represented." These include Cambodia, Turkey, Burma and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.). Representatives of the latter have been "in conversation" with APT6 lead curator Suhanya Raffel via an intermediary - the Beijing-based British filmmaker Nicholas Bonner. His connections with the Pyongyang-based Mansudae Art Studio helped secure 70 works: paintings, prints and mosaics influenced by the socialist-realist styles of Russia and China. Raffel says their inclusion recognizes "different, parallel art histories that have developed in the region in local specific ways...