Lord David Alton of Liverpool recently received a letter from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, rejecting a proposal from a small group of people, of which he is a member, calling for the BBC World Service to be extended to the Korean Peninsula.
[imText1]A keen human rights campaigner as well as member of the UK upper legislature, he says he finds it strange that there is seemingly no room in the budget for what would clearly be a highly beneficial service.
“One of the major success stories of our diplomatic relations with North Korea has been the promotion of English,” he points out. “It is that country’s second language; it is the teaching language at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. I think our language is a huge asset.”
In addition, he goes on, “It is an even bigger asset in South Korea.”
Visualizing the benefits on offer, he clearly has no plans to take the setback lying down. “I have already asked for a meeting with the minister involved, the Rt. Hon. Hugo Swire MP,” he declares, before adding, “If the best the British government can do is say that ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ was broadcast in the DPRK, then that sets a very low threshold for our hopes and expectations for the future.”
And that is exactly what the government did say. The British government, the official reply he received in September notes, is concerned that broadcasting the BBC World Service into North Korea might hinder London’s policy of critical engagement with the North Korean authorities, but would like to point out that the British Embassy in Pyongyang negotiated the broadcasting of ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ on state television in recognition of the importance of free access to information.
Yet the BBC never shied away from broadcasting into the former USSR or China for fear of putting diplomatic relations at risk in those places. Suspecting that financial calculations may have won the day, Lord Alton is not ready to quit just yet.
“I met the BBC for a preliminary discussion on this and they had no principle objections. They agreed that it would be a wonderful thing, but their budgets have been cut so they don’t see how they can hope to expand [to Korea],” he explains. “So, I felt that they were disingenuous arguments that had been woven into the ministerial reply. I have already expressed my opinion at the Embassy in Seoul on that, and I didn’t feel discouraged by the response I was given.”
He is quick to point out that there may also be another way to move forward: namely, combining money from other sources with the BBC’s quality programming and strong brand name. “There is now provision for commercial sponsorship of BBC services,” he expands. “So, if there were Koreans with an interest in seeing the creation of a Korean service then there could be serious discussion about that.”
“If there is anyone reading your report that would like to come forward with a proposal, I’m happy to take back ideas to the World Service and to Hugo Swire as well,” he declares. “I’ve also copied in David Cameron on my correspondences.”
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Even with the BBC seemingly reluctant to dip its toes in the politically-charged Korean waters, Lord Alton sees much to commend in relations between the UK and North Korea, relations which have already led to two scholars attending Cambridge University (their time is almost up) and more projects of a similar nature entering the pipeline. Cambridge University has also agreed to act as a partner on the tentatively titled Pyongyang Literary Festival. It was in the works when Daily NK last met Lord Alton back in spring 2011, but seems to be moving forward more rapidly now.
“[Supreme People’s Assembly Vice-Chairman] Choi Tae Bok and I are the patrons, and the North Korean Writers Association has been designated as the official partner agency. You need a partner to make anything happen, and the fact that they have designated a partner means that they want it to happen,” he notes enthusiastically. “I don’t want to go on about this too much, but it is certainly more significant than Bend it Like Beckham.”
Lord Alton is a big supporter of engagement with North Korea. That much is clear from his pro bono role as trustee of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. But, as his tireless pursuit of a Korean BBC World Service shows, he is also someone who wants to see an end to so-called ‘quietism’ on North Korean human rights; the idea, surprisingly resilient among some on the left in South Korea in particular, that talking about human rights abuses makes a bad situation worse.
I think they are fundamentally wrong,” he says dismissively. “Don’t forget that people used to doubt some of the information that was collected from people who had escaped from the former USSR, and there were officials in the Foreign Office and elsewhere who said that it would make the situation worse to tell their stories. I think it is immoral to remain quiet about the plight of a people for whom nobody else will speak.”
The idea that being a progressive political thinker does not automatically require one to clam up about North Korean human rights is best characterized in a quote from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, he goes on to note, before commencing a lengthy hunt for the former Labour Party leader’s words somewhere in a speech to be delivered later the same day.
Finding the right place in the script, he goes on, “Tony Blair said that ‘the biggest scandal in progressive politics today is that you do not have people with placards out in the streets on North Korea. The people are kept in a form of slavery, 23 million of them, and nobody protests!’”
“It was Gorbachev who finally signed the protocols ending the gulags in the Soviet Union, and it is not too much to hope that we will see the end of the gulags in North Korea as well, but to pretend they don’t exist is to collaborate with the North Koreans themselves,” he concludes, adding that while North Korea has a bright future, “We will not bring about a better future by being quiet about the realities of today. And the realities of today are, in terms of human rights, abysmal and must be changed.”
