Pretending to govern North Korea is much nicer than living there
neighbourhood at the foot of Bukhansan mountain in Seoul’s northern suburbs sits a large office building with a stately glass-panelled entrance. Colourful flags flutter in the breeze above the generous but mostly empty car park, which is surrounded by well-tended shrubbery.
This is the office of the Committee for the Five Northern Provinces, South Korea’s vestigial bureaucracy for North Korea, over which the South claims jurisdiction. Five of the flags outside represent the provinces lost in 1948, when the peninsula was formally sundered . There is a governor for each province, as well as mayors for their towns and cities and village officials for smaller settlements.The purpose of the committee’s existence is not obvious.
Whatever the committee’s officials do, it must be important, since each governor makes a tidy 138m won a year, plus 20m won to cover unspecified expenses. Each has two secretaries as well as a car and driver. The committee as a whole has an annual budget of 10bn won . A website lists the committee’s activities as nurturing exchange among North Korean refugees in the South and elsewhere , researching the North’s history and preserving “traditional” North Korean culture. However, an inquisitiverecently found no evidence that any research is being conducted.
The preservation of old culture, at least, seems to be going strong. A museum on the ground floor of the building displays several old-looking masks alongside more contemporary North Korean artefacts such as shoes and cosmetics. During a recent ceremony to celebrate the committee’s 70th birthday, the minister for gender equality and family stood on a patch of lawn shovelling soil on the roots of a “peace tree” with a gold-effect spade as dignitaries in dark suits looked on.
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