[imText1]Critics are frowning upon U.S. Newsweekly Time Magazine’s designation of North Korea’s mass games “Arirang,” which has been internationally criticized for suppressing the human rights of children, as the “Best Example of Group Discipline.”
The latest issue of Time Magazine-Asia Edition features a section entitled “The Best of Asia” dedicated to the finest attractions for the “Mind, Body, and Soul.” Listed under the heading “Best for the Body,” Arirang was recommended as Asia’s number one tourist attraction and largest performance.
The Arirang performance is not only a system of propaganda commending military first politics and the dictatorship, but it incorporates harsh training and corporal punishment for children made to participate in it while infringing on their right to study. The extent to which these children train continues to be endlessly argued as constituting child abuse. Because of this, North Korean human rights groups and international human rights groups are increasingly voicing concerns that the conditions under which North Korean children prepare for the Arirang performance constitute a serious violation of U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Time Magazine, as a primary newsweekly publication representing the U.S., is a major media source with enormous influence in the world. It has a long-standing reputation, but its raising up the world’s most notorious dictator by labeling his misuse of children for glorification propaganda as a cultural performance cannot be condoned.
Time describes the mass games as a dynamic, spectacular production, commenting, “When it all comes together, the group dynamics are spectacular. Think of it as state ideology in motion, a hypnotic, surreal simulacrum of the masses striving in unison.”
“All the action isn’t on the field,” the article continues, “The games are performed against a morphing mosaic that sprawls across a side of the stadium. Created by up to 20,000 children flipping through the colored pages of pre-prepared books, the display, according to Guinness World Records, is the world’s ‘largest gymnastic and artistic performance’.”
The article explains, “Incorporating up to 100,000 performers, the Mass Games — a state propaganda exercise that is part pageant, part rhythmic gymnastics — require more than a million man-hours of preparation.” This is followed by an introduction of the documentary A State of Mind, as having brought international “fame” to the performance.
The documentary, produced by British movie director Daniel Gordon, portrays the daily life of two female students, Hyun Soon (13) and Song Yeon (11), as they rigorously train 10 hours a day, despite sub-zero temperatures, in order to participate in the mass games.
Gordon explained his motivation in making the film, stating, “Politics aside, I wanted to increase understanding of North Korea by filming the daily lives of average Pyongyang citizens.”
But this documentary, meant to give an objective view of life in Pyongyang through the eyes of foreigners, record Hyun Soon stating decisively, “I long for the day I get to serve the General. I can endure pain and train.” Despite having expressed that her scathing remarks, the movie does not care about it and moves on her training. The children’s painful cries ring hollow in light of cultural anthropological theory, which simply put, states that North Koreans do not likely consider the pain they endure to be abuse or as even out of the norm for their Juche “ideal regime”.
According to the testimony of North Korean defectors, for the Arirang performance, the rights of tens of thousands of North Korean children to study are infringed upon for close to one year while they are made to undergo intense training second only to that of the military. During this process, the students undergo physical and mental pain to no end.
In addition, these average children are expected to perform and move with the precision of orthodox athletes and must endure severe exercises in preparation for the Arirang performance.
The description of Arirang as a large-scale dynamic spectacle is rhetorical flourish that does not reflect the process that goes into perfecting the performance and only serves to dazzle readers. The Arirang performance is brought to perfection through the blood and sweat of North Korean children. It is not Asia’s greatest performance; it is nothing less than Asia’s greatest human rights violation.
We can not know for what purpose ‘Time Magazine’ had intended this article, but drafting articles that communicate accurate truths is the fundamental mission of all media. Time’s recommendation to see Arirang as a means of exciting the “Body,” “Mind” and “Soul” is indicative of a significant oversight of the truth and leaves a bitter taste for human rights activists around the globe.
