Thread by @BonicMichael

Let Them Eat Concerts, II: Musical Diplomacy, the Ri Sol-ju Rollout, and Kim Ki-Nam
Analysis of the Moranbong Band as an instrument of DPRK cultural diplomacy, interaction with “First Lady” Ri Sol-ju, and the geriatrics of the Politburo.”
[AUGUST 04, 2012]
sinonk.com/2012/08/04/let…

2/There is so much more to Moranbong Band than meets the eye of the Western lens. Adam Cathcart decodes it all for us:

"What if the Moranbong Band’s first and second concerts were more than simply entertainment for his wife (who accompanied him to both performances), but part of

3/"a larger plan for cultural ties of DPRK with the outside? Are the concerts, in other words, the spearpoint of a cultural offensive by the Kim Jong Un regime along the lines of a Deng Xiaoping-style opening?

Considering Musical Diplomacy |  As has previously been argued about

4/"the US-China rapprochement in the early 1970s, the biggest diplomatic signals are often missed. When Chairman Mao stood with Edgar Snow on the dais at Tiananmen for a parade in 1970, the US did not pick up on the hint: Even though policy at the time was chaotic and improvised

5/"at best, China wanted to initiate direct talks with the US.

Is “Rocky IV” Kim Jong-un’s equivalent of Edgar Snow?  Is it a real indication that he wants to do business with the US, and is finally ready to renegotiate with the United States to recoup the damage done and

6/"calories drained from national granaries via the awful scuttling of the Leap Day food deal? The short answer is no.

But the notion is true that the Moranbong Band was used by Kim Jong Un to cement other alliances and serve as a symbol of honor for a foreign ally – China. As

7/"shall be seen in an extensive forthcoming SinoNK look at North Korea’s war commemoration, the Chinese role cannot be overlooked. With Kim Jong Un taking his first major bilateral meeting with a Chinese delegation that did not so much as include a Vice-Premier, there was a

8/"need for a quick patch to remind the Chinese how much they mattered. Thus: From “Rocky” to “Mao Anying,” as it were, and the Moranbong Band dons the olive garb to remind a couple dozen thousand assembled Pyongyangites and Korean War vets - and Beijing - of China’s significance

9/"to the war effort…

In true North Korean fashion, the actual details of the Moranbong concert trickled out under the full control of the North Korean media in a fashion that was destined to generate maximum buzz in the Western media, emerging in the following order:

10/
"1. Woman (who is she?)

2. Outfits (cultural opening?)

3. Mickey Mouse (what?)

4. Rocky IV (seriously?)…

The media roll-out for North Korea’s erstwhile First Lady has been, to the frustration of many writers, a kind of success for Kim Jong Un. The preparation of the

11/"discourse and its pacing by North Korean media shows a good understanding of how the Western reception would go. The combination of an unexpected brief flash of Westernization along with a an unexpected flash of transparency (a Kim dictator publicly acknowledging a spouse)

12/"was enough for North Korea to reap the gains without having to make any substantive promises to its own people about changes in the system.

Meanwhile “Rocky” could be explained away as a love theme for Kim Jong Un’s “Adrian,” a paean to underdogs everywhere, or, if

13/" necessary, an evocation of American decline. Meanwhile, the anti-reformist statements that followed — and the Moranbong Band’s next appearance at a Korean War commemoration — made clear that this was not some broader glasnost move by Kim Jong Un."

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14/photos & captions

[Moranbong Band Leader Sonu Hyang Hui, with violin, plays a stretto to the guitar solo from “Rocky” at the band’s debut | Image via Korean Central Television; full performance at click]

15/[Chinese Field Marshal Peng Dehuai on screen (left) with his young military subordinate, Kim Il Sung, in North Korea, 1951, showed during the Moranbong Band’s second performance, which included pro-Chinese music evoking the Korean War in Pyongyang on July 30, 2012 |]

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