The DPRK and Outside Influences

A couple of articles here that provide an interesting perspective on just how much outside culture/influence the North Korean regime is willing to tolerate.

The first, from Chosun Ilbo, discusses the North Korean Glossary of Economic Terms, published last year to help ruling elites with their economic literacy. If the DPRK's poor economy wasn't already enough of a sign that there was a problem in that department, the extremely basic nature of the dictionary clarifies that:

North Korea has published a dictionary of capitalist terminology to help its people grasp basic concepts like “principal”, “interest”, “insurance”, “income”, “labor force” and “rent.”

The second article, from Radio Free Asia, talks about how the so-called "Korean Wave" of South Korean pop culture has penetrated to North Korea, to the great chagrin of the regime, and, oftentimes, the great suffering of those who are caught partaking.

“There have been two or three reports of public executions of North Korean young people in major cities including Chungjin, as punishment for having illegally copied and distributed South Korean visual material,” said Kang Chul Hwan, vice-chairman of the Seoul-based Committee for the Democratization of North Korea.