Monday, September 15, 2003
NORTH KOREA SHIFTS TOWARDS CAPITALISM. So reads the headline in the WaPo (thanks to IA for noticing the story). There are these signs of change:
South Korean officials and recent business travelers to North Korea say the food markets have dramatically expanded in the past few months. Existing markets have added manufactured goods to their product lines while new markets are spreading beyond the capital into rural areas. Pyongyang's official news agency recently described the expanded markets as being designed "to dramatically . . . improve the country's standard of living." In a radical departure from protocol, the agency also proudly published a photo of a large new market under construction in Pyongyang.Yet, given the following, I am not holding my breath:
Creating an ad campaign acceptable to North Korean officials wasn't easy, said John Kim, the company's director of general affairs. "We had to work closely with the government, and they kept on rejecting ads . . . because they looked too much like we were trying to sell something."
