By If there is no domestic porn industry in North Korea than what other porn are people going to watch?:
Foreign pornography is spreading in North Korean market, Radio Free Asia in the U.S. reported Friday.
Quoting a North Korean source, the radio station said the regime is trying to clamp down by distributing players that will only play North Korean-made DVDs and replacing parts of foreign players to stop them from being compatible, but an increasing number of people are looking for foreign videos.
The bestsellers in the market are pornography from Japan, a resident in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, said. And many of the customers are teenagers.
A source in North Pyongan Province said, “It’s easy to buy a smuggled Chinese video player, and it’s possible to reproduce DVDs at home with Chinese-made burners. Foreign porn has spread so widely that any home with a player usually has one or two porn DVDs.”
Parents in the North are concerned because there is no video ratings system in the North nor proper sex education for children, RFA added.
“It’s difficult for North Korean residents to watch foreign TV programs, but not a few enjoy foreign porn as well as South Korean soap operas on DVDs,” a North Korean defector said. [Chosun Ilbo]
5:31 am on October 19th, 2010 1
The tragedy! Those people are so deprived. Have you ever seen Japanese porn? All the goodies are pixelated. The Japanese soft-porn you can see freely on South Korean cable is much better.
Please someone! Help those poor people!
3:22 pm on October 19th, 2010 2
I see a balloon drop in their future.
10:52 pm on October 19th, 2010 3
The US government (CIA, etc) should be taking advantage of North Korean's thirst for black market entertainment. Americanism was spread as much on the strength of our pop culture (movies, music, comics, etc) as it did by the strength of our arms. Why isn't anybody propagating the spread of American television programs, movies, and music videos into the North (preferably all with Korean subtitles)? Printing off a few hundred thousand bootleg DVDs of Friends, the West Wing and last year's top blockbuster movies would hardly be the most illegal thing the CIA has ever done, and would do more to familiarize North Koreans with contemporary American culture than any amount of RadioFree broadcasts. Might not make a huge immediate impact, but American forces rolling across the DMZ will have a much harder time of things if the only notion of 'American' the average person has comes directly from the Pyongyang propaganda bureau. A serious covert 'cultural offensive' would humanize Americans, discredit the Kim Jong regime, and expose the youth of North Korea to an alternate vision of the future than that offered by the ruling Pyongyang elite.
Follow that up with CIA-funded adult films, custom tailored to a North Korean male audience and smothered with a generous dose of propaganda (the beautiful girl-representing NK- is abused by the diminutive, chubby, aviator-wearing male actor, until a noble American hero defeats the villain and reunites her with her husband, representing SK). The debut of pornproganda is way overdue.
2:32 am on October 20th, 2010 4
Oh Jesus. I can just imagine what government-sponsored porno would be like.
My buddy Dean last night reminded me about a cassette tape he'd bought in the PX in Yongsan back in 1988. "PaekDuSan-The Official Heavy Metal Band of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee". He said he just had to buy it to hear what music sponsored by Chun Duhwan's regime would sound like. Pitiful.
7:41 am on October 20th, 2010 5
Since the turn of the millennium, I have come to appreciate something I call reverse propaganda. In that time I've gotten to know many people from former Soviet Union countries here in Korea. They invite me to their home, socialize and I got to learn somethings about their lives during the Soviet Union. A lot of what I learned was contrary to what I was led to believe.
They showed me movies they are nostalgic for from those times. They explained the stories to me. Many of them had very open and lively themes. Some were filmed in locations throughout the Mediterranean and other parts of Asia. They drank Coca Cola and were aware of and enjoyed many things from the West.
It led me to understand that much of what I was led to believe about life for the common Soviet citizen was exaggerated and distorted. So, now I will remain skeptical about most claims of the same about life for the common people of North Korea.