North Korea: the ups and downs of the Control Society

Tuesday 8. October at 19:00 - 22:00

FORUM Factory • Besselstraße 13-14, Berlin, Germany

Andrey Lankov, an orientalist and expert in Korean studies, will give a lecture "North Korea: the ups and downs of the Control Society” in Berlin on October 8.

Andrey Lankov’s academic commitment has always been the DPRK — the state that for many decades had been considered a model of "perfect totalitarianism". But apparently its image of a society of total control, where the all-seeing and all-powerful Big Brother enjoys absolute power over the combat robot-like population, was far from the truth in old times, and after the collapse of the USSR and the socialist camp is no more true at all. There is private entrepreneurship in the country, and although this "republic" is not as "democratic" as its name says, the state control over the lives of citizens has significantly loosened. In many ways, the lives of North Koreans are not so different from those in other poor countries.

Following his graduate studies, Lankov taught Korean history and language at various universities. He is the author of numerous books and monographs on Korean history — such as "The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia", "North of the 38th parallel". "Korea: a leap into the present".

He has been a columnist for the English-language daily The Korea Times for 15 years, and also contributed for Bloomberg News, Al Jazeera and Carnegie Center, to name a few. Since 2012, Lankov has been a regular contributor to NK News.

After the lecture Andrey Lankov will take questions from the audience.

The meeting will be held in Russian at Forum Factory at Besselstraße 13-14

FORUM Factory • Besselstraße 13-14, Berlin, Germany

Google Map of Besselstraße 13-14, Berlin, Germany

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