North Korea: “The Cleanest Race”

“What can you hear about North Korea that you haven’t heard a 1000 times before? Only the most important thing; which is, how do North Koreans think and how do they see themselves in the world around them?”

So my friend Ricardo sent me this hour-long C-SPAN lecture by B.R. Myers on North Korea (and the peninsula as a whole). It’s mostly based on his book (and titled thusly) “The Cleanest Race.”

You can watch the first 10 minutes on YouTube or watch the entire hour on the C-SPAN website. The lecture is exactly what it sounds like. Myers discusses how Korea developed the identity of being a pure race (mostly from the Japanese during their occupation from 1910-1945) and how it plays against the rest of the world. There’s no need to look to the outside world when everything you have inside the country is pure.

He also says that the only way to properly let the North end its reign is to convince China to let the country collapse. Also, in the beginning of the video, Myers makes a good point that North Korea is one of the few enemies that America doesn’t know much about.

Try to watch at least the first 10 minutes, it’s very interesting. It should be noted that this was originally filmed in February of 2010 (hence the reference to the Snowpocalypse), so it doesn’t refer to the ROKS Cheonan or shelling incidents.