A Response in the Right Direction: North Korea

North Korea appears to have hacked the Sony computer network, capturing many private business communications and some of their soon-to-be-released movies.  This has hugely damaged the Sony Company.  Apparently the motivation was Sony’s expected new film, The Interview, in which a team is recruited to assassinate North Korea’s President, Kim Jong-un.  Clearly, Mr. Kim was not pleased.  North Korea threatened a terrorist attack on theaters playing this movie, the movie theater chains elected not to screen the film, and Sony “withdrew” the film from release on Christmas Day 2014.

A big picture look at this contretemps shows two sides: a young man in North Korea with little ability, personal or experiential, to deal with the modern world, and the modern world, or the developed world, or the first world, that has little regard to any forces that stop free speech.

But let’s look more deeply.  Mr. Kim is clearly a sensitive man.  He is the absolute ruler of his country and does not have to accommodate any disagreement with his authority or any lack of extreme politeness on the part of people interacting with him.  Briefly, having a movie being released that is about assassinating oneself is not a situation that most people, including westerners, would respond to with aplomb.  

But, let’s look further.  Mr. Kim is quite young, 31, to be the head of a modern country.  In the U.S., for example, a person is not eligible for the highest office until age 35.  In addition to being young, Mr. Kim spent his childhood isolated from the problems of his people, and from the problems of the world.  He represents the things that are wrong with hereditary political systems—isolation from the concerns of the governed and knowledge of the greater world.  Secondly, Asian cultures have the concept of “face.”  In Asia, one does not deliberately put a powerful person in a bad light unless he wants undying hatred and retribution.  Mr. Kim has responded exactly as expected to this threat to his face.

Now for the other side.  The Western world has unfortunately had many encounters with repressive regimes that stifle free speech in their own countries, and attempt to stifle free speech in the world.  Most notably this has been with regard to the Muslims in the Arab world and in Iran, who allow no criticism of their religion, yet prominently satirize and criticize Judaism and Christianity.  After years of this affront to western eyes from the Middle East, North Korea steps into the controversy, in effect inheriting the quarrel.  So North Korea is not only being preyed upon because of its own failures, but is also, in some ways, a proxy for the Middle Eastern states.

What are some effective ways to resolve this situation? 

Here are some responses that North Korea could have made.  One is to call up Sony Pictures and to ask about their upcoming film.  To have responded with a suggestion to host a blow-out world premiere for the film in North Korea, on the order of a modern Olympics Opening Session.  This would have put the spotlight on North Korea in a good way, allowing NK to highlight the positives in their country.  Another response would be to make a film of similar or superior quality with the assassination of some western icon: the Koch brothers, Sony’s President, Johnny Appleseed, Alfred E. Newman…  And to release that film to great fanfare.  Showing one’s sensitivity and vulnerability is not the answer.  Showing humor and irony is better!

Now, what could the west do better?  One way is to make sure this dubious film is now released in some way.  However, what the North Korean leadership most abhors is allowing their citizens to know about, and interact with the world, especially with their cousins in South Korea who speak the same language, share the same heritage until 1953, and are now highly prosperous and modernized.  Connecting North Koreans with uncensored internet and telecommunications would end the isolation and would sooner or later make the leadership have to amend their policies so that North Koreans can be as successful as their South Korean Cousins.  Could we set up uncensored WiFi just across North Korea’s borders?  That would be a good start.  We could also make sure that North Koreans had the means to access the net and the telecommunications…

Another approach would be to sponsor a film contest showing a future vision of a perfected North Korea.  This could be a contest at film schools, or a contest open to all filmmakers with a substantial incentive to participate and to make a winning film.  These films could be publicly screened, again with some access made so that North Korean citizens could view them.  Perhaps the North Korean citizens could vote regarding their choice of winner?

Another film approach would be a contest depicting a resolution of the suffering of the North Korean people.  Unlike the documentary approach likely in the future vision scenario, this might encourage more dramatic fiction, and possibly engage people’s hearts more.

These are just starting ideas about peaceful ways to resolve the mess that now exists in North Korean-American relations.  May we together find a peaceful solution and a way to end the suffering of all!