49c. Survival of the fittest
Sep 25th 2008 From The Economist print edition

North Korean society is turbulent and in flux

49c-1-220
WHAT with North Korea being a cold-war state and a nuclear one to boot, the fixation on its missiles is perhaps not surprising. Around the world that fixation has spawned a veritable industry of think-tankers, journalists and officials past and present, many with an axe to grind, who make a living from parsing the intentions of the regime and second-guessing the leader's health and even thoughts. Yet much Pyongyangology is futile, because no outsider has a line into the ruling elite. Almost certainly the upper levels of the regime have never been infiltrated by Western or South Korean spy agencies. The most recent high-level North Korean defection was in 1997.
The keenest insights into Kim Jong Il and his court have come from more surreal angles. For instance, a well-known Italian chef, brought in to pamper the dictator, later wrote about the experience. And there is Shin Sang-ok, a legendary South Korean film director whom Mr Kim, a film buff, kidnapped and held with his actress wife, hoping to improve the North's film industry. 'All our movies are filled with crying and sobbing,' an indignant Mr Kim told the pair, hauled out of prison to attend a cocktail party in their honour. 'I didn't order them to portray that kind of thing.'
A fixation on North Korea's missiles can 'end up obscuring a great deal of other things worth knowing,' as Christian Caryl, a journalist based in Asia, put it in the New York Review of Books. Most worthwhile of all is knowing just how the mass of ordinary North Koreans act, think and feel. It is still too widely assumed that such things are unknowable. After all, foreigners, and especially reporters, have always found it hard to get into North Korea, and those who do are assigned minders. Only the minders offer the chance to learn about life and leaderswhich is why they are often supplied in pairs, to mind each other.

A. 어휘
survival of the fittest 適者生存(적자생존). turbulent 소용돌이치는, 동요하고 있는.
flux 流動(유동). to boot 게다가, 그 위에. fixation 固着(고착).
spawn 알을 낳다, 생기게 하다. veritable 참된, 진실의. think-tanker 두뇌집단의 일원.
official 관리, 직원. grind-ground-ground 연마하다, 빻아서 가루로 만들다.
parse (문장을 문법적으로) 해부하다, 설명하다. intention 의도. regime 政權(정권).
Pyongyangology 북한정권에 관한 연구. futile 슬데 없는, 무익한.
infiltrate 침투하다. the ruling elite 권력층, 지배 엘리트.
defection 離叛(이반), 탈당, 변절. keen 예리한. insight 통찰. court 宮庭(궁정).
surreal 초현실적인. angle 角度(각도), 관점. chef 料理長(요리장).
pamper 충분히 만족시키다. legendary 전설적인. film director 영화감독. buff 狂(광).
kidnap 납치하다. sob 흐느껴 울다. indignant 격분한. haul 잡아끌다.
in honor of ...에게 경의를 표하여, ...을 축하하여. portray 표현하다, 초상을 그리다.
obscure 덮어 감추다, 흐리게 하다. the mass 대중. ordinary North Koreans 북한의 보통사람들. assume 가정하다. assign 임명하다. minder 관리인, 돌보는 사람.
assigned minders 임명된 안내원들( 북한당국이 감시를 위해 임명한 안내원들).

B. 구문
- What with North Korea being . . . not surprising.
cf. what=partly [(ADVERB(부사)], 어느 정도, ...하기도 하고.
. with + NOUN(명사) + -ing/pp. → 독립분사구문의 부대상황
-with North Korea being→ as North Korea is
[북한이 냉전국가이기도 하고 게다가 핵보유 국가이기 때문에 북한이 미사일에 집착하는 것은 놀랄 것이 못된다.]
- a veritable industry of . . . past and present
[과거와 현재의 두뇌집단, 언론인, 그리고 관료들의 좋은 사업]
- A fixation on . . . worth knowing.
[북한의 미사일에만 관심을 집착하는 것은 우리가 알아야 할 다른 많은 것들을 덮어두는 것으로 끝나기 쉽다.]
- Most worthwhile of all
[모든 것 중에서 가장 가치가 있는 것]
- After all, foreigners, . . . into North Korea
cf. it→ to get into 를 가리키는 가목적어.
[결국 외국인들은 특히 기자들은 북한의 내부를 들여다보는 것이 어렵다는 것을 항상 발견한다.]
- they are often . . ., to mind each other.
[안내원들은 서로를 감시하기 위하여 두 사람이 組(조)를 지어서 따라 붙는다]

49c-2-221
So a visit to North Koreawhich usually means only to Pyongyang, with its empty boulevards, its traffic policewomen in skirts and boots, pirouetting with fixed smiles, and its old-fashioned communist propagandaleads many to the conclusion that the North is set in amber. A reconsideration of this view is overdue. For a new picture is emerging that shows a protean society in flux, one that in the face of harsh realities is adopting an improvisatory approach to survival, and some people are thriving.

The uses of famine
The roots of this change lie with the famine of 1995-98 that killed up to 1m people, or over 4% of the population, and brought outsidersaid agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)to North Korea. The regime made it hard for these groups to get aid to those who needed it, and kicked some of them out after the famine was over, notably the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). Other NGOs, however, continue to work there in inconspicuous ways. Aid groups have filled big gaps in outsiders' knowledge about life and death in the provinces. Good Friends, a South Korean Buddhist outfit, publishes regular reports on food supplies across North Korea, the latest government campaigns and evidence of popular discontent. Not every detail can be substantiated. But the latest bulletin reports some dozens of deaths from hunger and the ill-effects of eating grass among farming families in the southern part of the country. Earlier this year Good Friends reported the public execution in North Hamgyong province of 15 North Koreans, mainly women, for having attempted to cross into China.
The risks of crossing the border illegally are high, but during the famine the rewards easily outweighed them. That was particularly so for those from the north-eastern provinces near China where food shortages were most severe because of a breakdown in the public food-distribution system in industrial areas: uniquely, North Korea’s was as much an urban famine as a rural one.

A. 어휘
empty 비어있는. boulevard 가로수 길, 대로. pirouett 발끝으로 돌기, 급선회.
propaganda 선전. amber 琥珀(호박). be set in amber [호박 안에 박혀 있는 곤충의 화석처럼] 화석처럼 굳어서 변화가 없이 정체되어 있는.
reconsideration 再考(재고). overdue [기차 따위가]定刻(정각)을 지난, 기한이 지난. protean 변화무쌍한. adopt 채택하다. improvisatory 즉석의, 즉흥적인. famine 기근.
inconspicuous 눈에 띄지 않는. outfit 단체, 장비, 용품. regular report 정기보고서.
evidence 증거. popular discontent 大衆(대중)들의 불만. detail 세부적인 것.
substantiate 實證(실증)하다, 구체화하다. bulletin 정기회보, 揭示(게시), 公報(공보).
public execution 공개처형. border 국경. illegally 불법으로.
outweigh ...보다 뛰어나다, ...의 결점을 메우기에 충분하다. breakdown 붕괴, 파괴.
food-distribution system 식량배급체계. uniquely 특이하게도.
urban 도시의. rural 농촌의.

B. 구문
- Aid groups have filled . . . in the provinces.
[구호단체들은 지방에 사는 사람들의 생사에 관한 외부사람들(외국인들)의 지식에 있어서 크게 부족한 점을 채워주었다.]
- for having attempted to cross into China.= for they had attempted
cf. 완료동명사→having + pp. (본동사보다 시제가 앞선다)