A South Korean company producing women’s underwear in Kaesung Industrial Complex almost closed the factory when North Koreans found wrapping papers featuring foreign models with only underwear. North Korean authorities strongly complained.
The company barely managed to keep its business by letting only female laborers in closed rooms for wrapping.

The incident gives an impression of North Korean authorities strictly Confucian and conservative on sexuality.

In fact, however, they are not. They are lenient on sexuality. Sometimes, they are even decadent. In the past, party officials exploited KWP membership to allure women. Recent defectors testify: North Korean party officials keep mistresses.

Since mid 1990s, in the top echelon of North Korea vulgar talk and watching porn has been widespread.

It is known that talking about sexual stuff became prevalent since Kim Jong Il’s visit to Mt. Chilbo in North Hamkyung Province in 1996.

During Kim’s visit, a guide described a legend of the husband-and-wife rock. The rock reminds a husband hugging his wife, or having an intercourse for other observers. Kim Jong-Il enjoyed the story.

Afterward, every guide where Kim Jong Il made official visit made stories with sexual content and named the place with sexual terms to satisfy Kim.

So it became lenient in North Korean society to talk about sexuality in public. For the first time ever, sexual stories published in 1998 titled “Chilbo Legends.” The Legends include sexual stories of old times.

Then a flow of porn books published, in public. Literature and Art Publishing Company published secretly the “Licentious Stories” just for party officials. In 2000, even the Central Broadcasting Committee produced a licentious story-tape with its professional announcers and spread it to the officials.

In Kim Il Sung era, sexuality did not gain publicity. The current trend was originated by Kim Jong Il’s personal attitude. And North Korean society blindly followed it.

Porno became prevalent in late 1990s, first among party officials and it leaked out to the public. Nude or bikini-worn women dance in North Korean porno with music.

Such indigenous videos disappear as foreign-made porno being imported. The first consumers, and the largest now, are high-ranking officials of the party and army.

It costs 2000 North Korea won (approx. USD 1 =3,200 North Korean Wown) to rent a porno CD for an hour in North Korea. Even middle school students collect money to rent one.

Complaining of wrapping paper with foreign models with underwear in Kaesung Complex is too hypocritical.