MASIKRYONG, North Korea On the bumpy road to
North Korea's top ski resort, work gangs hack and shovel the fresh snowfall to
clear the route for busloads of their fortunate fellow citizens.There are
thousands of them. Men, women and children, red-faced from the blizzard
conditions and freezing cold, wrapped up in jackets, scarves and hats, smashing
the snow like metronomes with pickaxes and sticks. They the push it aside with
makeshift wooden shovels. Along the twisting mountain road, small
groups of uniformed soldiers join the work, but this is overwhelmingly a
civilian effort.
Their bicycles sit by the roadside. It's not
clear where the workers have come from there are no houses visible in the
area as well as who is in charge or who ordered them here. But for dozens of
miles, we weave in and out of of the mass ranks of Kim Jong Un's snow clearers.
Some of them appeared to be aged as young as 11 or 12. Others were teenagers. There
was no sign of snowplows that keep the roads to America's ski resorts open.
This is backbreaking, bone-chilling work by hand the hands of Kim's people.
There are no trucks to scatter salt. The
workers dig the frozen ground and throw earth and stones on the icy road to
keep the few cars that travel here from skidding off. North Korea's
authoritarian state believes above all in "juche" or "self-reliance."
Its Stalinist-run society relies on the "revolutionary" work done
every day by cadres of peasants and factory workers, organised by the ruling
party, to maintain and create "a socialist fairyland." So a heavy
snowfall must be removed from the roads of the fairyland. The people must
respond. But the most surprising thing about this road is what's at its end.Mention
North Korea, and a ski resort is not the first thing that comes to mind.
A three-hour drive east from the capital
Pyongyang, the slopes at Masikryong rival the best in many countries: 4,000
feet at the top, with 10 slopes to challenge all levels of skiers, from
beginners to the slalom experts weaving their way down the wide pistes. Only
four slopes were open when NBC News visited, but that had more to do with the
blizzard than anything else.Chairlifts take parties of excited schoolchildren
from chalets and the resort's main hotel which offers first, second or
third-class rooms.
They're dressed in multicolored ski suits,
many with new boots and skis. Equipment is offered for rent or for sale at the
ski shop. A full ski outfit with gear costs several months worth of wages for
even the most affluent local customer. But this resort is beyond the imagining
of most of the North Korea's dirt-poor people. And propaganda is never far
away. At the bottom of the slopes a giant screen blasts out patriotic music,
showing scenes of saluting generals and Kim's officials from a Communist Party
conference.
In the hotel lobby, copies of Pyongyang
newspapers recount the visit of the supreme leader himself to the resort last
year. Kim watched the skiing, praised the country's sportsmen and women and
then, incongruously, watched some nearby artillery firing. War and the enemies
on the doorstep the "puppet regime" of South Korea and the
"imperialist" American forces based there are never far from the
minds of the rulers here.
So it pains the North Koreans that next
year's Winter Olympics will be held on the Korean Peninsula, but not at their
Masikryong resort, where the snow falls thick and deep for three months of
every year. Instead, the world will flock to Pyongchang in hated South Korea,
where artificial snow will be pumped out to cover the bare patches that scar
the otherwise well-appointed resort.Thae's comments came during a press
conference in Seoul, the first time he has spoken to international media since
his defection.
During the press conference, Thae, who speaks
fluent English, declared that "Kim Jong-Un's days are
numbered," as information about the outside world becomes more accessible.
"Low-level dissent or criticism of the regime, until recently unthinkable,
is becoming more frequent," he added.The spread of information in North
Korea has come despite extremely tight government control of television, phone
networks, and the Internet. Both USB drives containing international
media and contraband Chinese cell phones are being smuggled into the
country with increasing regularity. However, that has triggered a corresponding
crackdown on illicit information by the Kim Jong-Un regime.
Of course, Thae's perspective is both
important and limited. He is a member of North Korea's elite, whose father was a
general under North Korean founder Kim Il Sung. He was educated in China,
served in North Korea's London embassy for years before his defection, and sent
his children to local schools there. That elite status means that while he
certainly has strong ties to North Korean leaders, his access to broader
popular sentiment may be more limited. Thae and his family are now living in
South Korea, where despite being under heavy guard, he says his "sons are
happy because they are now feeling true freedom".The International Olympic
Committee received no bid from North Korea to host the Winter Games and even if
they had, it would have been beyond the North's capabilities.
It also would have been out of the question to
hold the Olympics in a country that defies the world over its nuclear program
and much else.So, Masikryong will content itself next year, like every year,
with the elite of its own closed society. They will swim in its half-Olympic
sized pool, drink imported French cognac and Scotch whisky in its bars there
is no sign of successful sanctions here and eat delicious fish from the
nearby sea.
Perhaps after a Korean foot massage, they
will have their hair shaped in one of the 12 suggested styles pictured in the
beauty salon.And then they'll take the long road home, past the massed and
huddled work gangs toiling through the day, hacking away at the snow and ice.
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