North Korea ‘Exposed’ At USW Talk
A CELEBRATED photographer who’s seen at first hand the way of life in North Korea is giving a talk at the University of South Wales (USW) this month.
Jeremy Hunter has had unprecedented access to the secretive country, and has compiled and shot an extraordinary record of daily life in one of the most isolated states on Earth.
“North Korea is the only hereditary communist ‘monarchy’ in the world, and is seen as the most repressive nation on earth, probably the most brutal and certainly the most secretive,” said Jeremy.
“Propaganda pervades every single facet of life in North Korea. The Cult of the Kim Dynasty is not only based on, but sustained, through propaganda and by consistent, and persistent, distortion and fabrication of the truth.
“Robert Gates, former CIA director, considered the country to be ‘the toughest intelligence target in the world’.”
Jeremy is both repelled and fascinated by the country. He entered before the death of Kim Jong-Il – who was known as “the Dear Leader” – to photograph “ARIRANG”, which he describes as “an extraordinary, epic, propagandist spectacle”.
“It was a two-hour mass-celebration on a mind-boggling scale that had been staged outdoors, in Pyongyang, in the world’s largest stadium, every August and September for the previous 10 years featuring a meticulously choreographed military and gymnastic display before vast backdrops created out of thousands of hand-held flip charts,” he said.
In the hour-long lecture at USW – entitled North Korea exposed: Propaganda in the hermit kingdom – Jeremy illustrates and reveals the cultural and political significance of many of these backdrops, and in the first half of his talk gives an account of daily life in North Korea.
The event is on October 20 at USW’s Pontypridd campus, Treforest.
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