The new installment of Christopher Hitchens’ column in Slate describes North Korea in the typical Hitchens fashion: a dose of humor, erudite writing, high-brow cultural references, but in the typical pundit tradition has no real insights and at least two extraordinarily glaring mis-observations.
He claims that he “tries to avoid cliché” and yet still tells us that “North Korea is rather worse than Orwell’s dystopia.” Is there anything more cliché than comparisons with 1984? I would be a fool to disagree with his assertion here, but it is one that is horrifyingly obvious to anyone who has read even a single article about the situation in contemporary North Korea, and one which takes absolutely no imagination to make.
He also mentions that he has even been to North Korea, although his claim that “North Korea is almost as hard to visit as it is to leave” is quite false. While it is rather difficult for Americans to get tourist visas for the DPRK, urban-dwelling Chinese can enter quite easily, albeit restricted to certain tourist friendly zones. Actually it is quite easy for civilians (with the possible exception of US citizens) to book a North Korea tour through agencies such as Koryo Tours, based out of Beijing. This one company, and there are others, has one special tour listed per month, and advertises that they can arrange special ones for groups. The only caveat is that the government apparently bans journalists. Their website tells us:
On meeting with us at Koryo Tours’ office in Beijing we will require you to sign a form stating that you are not a journalist and that you will not publish anything about your trip. We are sorry to have to insist upon this but at the present time Journalists are not permitted to enter the DPRK, if you are a journalist and are interested in travelling to the DPRK then please let us know and we will be sure to let you know of any future opportunities.
Just because Christopher Hitchens can’t easily get a visa doesn’t mean that everybody else is so restricted.
But I save the best for last.
I was reduced to eating a dog, and I was a privileged “guest.”
So he’s been to North Korea, good for him. But has he ever been to South Korea? If he had, he would know that dog is not a meat of last resort in Korea, but traditionally eaten as a source of virility and considered a delicacy by many. How is somebody who knows so little about Korean culture writing about the region?
Hitchens is an arrogant ass, but he is clever, witty, and I enjoy him (takes one to know one?) And the man is an expert on Orwell, having written several books on the man. Sure, he doesn’t get Korean culture, but neither are most of the beltway commentators I hear speak on the subject.
Oh I agree that he is an entertaining writer, but for a man who has written several books on Orwell I would expect a rather more clever reference to his work than the same ones that everybody else would use.
I read the original article on his trip to North Korea in Love, Poverty and War. I think the high point of the piece was when Hitch described regaling his government minders with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” in a semi-clandestine karaoke bar in Pyongyang.