Mixed Reaction to Regional Moranbong Shows

Recently, North Korean state print and broadcast media have
been promoting the all-female Moranbong Band as they tour northerly Yangkang
Province. Media coverage has centered on the way in which the band has been giving
free concerts in provincial regions upon the orders of Kim Jong Eun so that
ordinary citizens from beyond the capital city can enjoy contemporary culture.

However, sources say that only young people have been excited
about the events. Many others have responded poorly. 

There are a number of reasons for this: attendees are picked
by their workplaces, meaning that a majority has no opportunity to attend. This
particularly applies to people working beyond the command economic structure. In
addition, a lot of people along the border have been struggling
economically due to the security clampdown that followed the execution of Jang Song Taek, and thus are not inclined to embrace
entertainment of this sort.

As one source living in Yangkang Province put it in
conversation with Daily NK on the 16th, “most people just scoffed”
at the propagandist media coverage.

“The concert at 4pm on the 9th at Kim Jong
Suk Art Hall was attended by model employees put forward by their workplaces,”
she revealed. “But people have been struggling to get by because of the
extended border crackdown that depleted reserves of food and money for
a lot of people; of course they didn’t react that well to it. It’s a case of ‘even
at Mt. Geumgang you have to eat before you can look around*.’”

“People who attended say that the show was impressive but it
would have been better if everyone could have seen it,” she went on, “People
reckon you have to be pretty brazen to put lies about it in the Party bulletin.”

“The women wear miniskirts during the performances in
Pyongyang they show on TV, but when they came to Yangkang Province they were
wearing partisan guerilla uniforms,” she recalled. “I guess they wanted to emphasize
revolutionary spirit.”

*”Even at Mt. Geumgang you have to eat before you can look around” is a popular Korean proverb explaining that no matter how wonderful a spectacle may be, one must eat first in order to enjoy it.