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signi‹cance of ‹lm in North Korea and the pervasive in‹ltration of commercially driven Western media products into the world market, this is the most likely vision of North Korea’s ‹lmic future that we will one day look back on. Whether it was meant to be an act of subversion or not, spontaneous moments like the aforementioned cardboard box incident provides us with an opportunity to ponder whether we could take this as an indication that North Korea is willing to be more ›exible about its cultural boundaries, if not daring to change its political orientation. Another notable episode from the 2008 PIFF includes the screening of a ‹lm that featured a depiction of Adolf Hitler hiding in a bunker during the ‹nal days of World War II.5 What did the North Korean audience think when they saw the defeated image of the notorious Nazi dictator who is so often compared to their own Great Leader outside their country? As celluloid images of the Führer appears on screen for North Korean viewers, just how many make the same frightening analogy so many westerners have drawn, even if only secretly in their own minds? Although culture and politics are two faces of the same coin in North Korea, the cultural front appears to be much more susceptible to change than the strictly controlled political front, as we witnessed during the historic New York Philharmonic visit to Pyongyang in February 2008.6 It is my personal hope that more and more cultural engagement with the outside world, limited though it may be in temporal and spatial settings, like the PIFF, will gradually erode the political front in North Korea. Nonetheless, these surprising moments are exceptional and rare, and North Korea by and large still remains a mystery to most of us. Foremost, it remains the only hereditary socialist state on earth, with a realistic possibility of Kim Jong-il’s third son, Kim Jeong-un [Gim Jeong-un], succeeding the father as a third-generation ruler.7 Growing more anachronistic with every day’s passing as the visions of this hereditary socialist kingdom loom large, North Korea is still invested in guarding its principles of ethnic purity and the supremacy of Kim Jong-il’s leadership. Maintaining such a purist notion of power comes in the form of draconian surveillance, often costing people their lives, including those of non–North Korean civilians. The year 2008 saw a continuous deterioration in the inter-Korean relationship , which became quite pronounced after I Myeong-bak assumed the presidency in South Korea during February of that year. Openly adhering to hawkish policies toward North Korea, the South Korean president attempted to distinguish his approach from the so-called “sunshine policy”8 of his two predecessors, Kim Dae-jung (1998–2003) and No Mu-hyeon 312 • ILLUSIVE UTOPIA (2003–8), by reverting to a hard-line approach that characterized much of George W. Bush’s North Korean policies. I’s policies caused antagonistic responses from the North, ranging from shutting down the tourist operation in Geumgang Mountain and the city of Gaeseong to ceasing operation of the inter-Korean railroad, which had begun just a year before.9 In the middle of 2008, the inter-Korean relationship ‹nally imploded. On July 11, 2008, a South Korean civilian was shot to death by a North Korean soldier near Geumgang Mountain, which appeared to be a benign tourist park featuring pristine nature when I had visited only three years prior to this incident. According to North Korea’s claim, a South Korean tourist, Park Wang-ja, a housewife in her ‹fties, stepped out of the designated tourist zone, and when she failed to respond to the North Korean soldier’s warning to stop, she was promptly shot. The South Korean investigation team claimed otherwise, insisting that she was not given a chance to explain herself , which North Korea immediately denied. The Geumgang Mountain tourist project, once seen as a symbolic harbinger of Korean reuni‹cation, was preparing to celebrate the tenth anniversary of operations with much fanfare on November 18. Instead, the shooting incident led to the immediate shutdown of the tourist operation, leaving its future uncertain. The Gaeseong tourism project, which introduced a less ‹ltered urban experience to civilian tourists than did Geumgang Mountain, also came to an inde‹nite halt on November 28, 2008, the same date inter-Korean train operations, which ignited hopes of reuni‹cation just a year earlier, also came...

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