朝鮮抵制韓國向開城朝方員工供巧克力派

During the glory days of the Cold War, the Kremlin was scared shitless by Levi’s, McDonald’s, and other symbols of decadent Western culture. That is no longer the case.

This past October, visitors to Lenin's tomb in Moscow were turned away because the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution wasn’t receiving visitors. Why not? A Coca-Cola–sponsored stage set up to promote the Sochi Olympics was blocking the entrance to his tomb.

In North Korea, however, the regime still considers foreign-made consumer products potentially dangerous. But it’s not blue jeans and Big Macs Kim Jong-un is currently worried about. No, he's trying to keep out the sinister influence of the somewhat tasty South Korean Choco Pie.

Seoul-based Orion Confectionery began producing the Choco Pie in 1974 — a pretty blatant ripoff of the Tennessee-born Moon Pie. Thirty years later, during a period of wary cooperation between the North and South, South Korean businesses began running factories in Kaesong, a 25-square-mile special administrative zone just across the border in North Korea. Today, 125 South Korean companies employ 52,000 North Korean workers there. The North Korean regime is paid about $100 a month for each employee, each one of whom is then given roughly $67 of that.

But Pyongyang forbids South Korean factory managers at Kaesong from paying bonuses or cash incentives to North Korean workers. And so they began rewarding them with Choco Pies.

Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says that while Choco Pies are “not nearly as good” as the Moon Pie, they're essentially used as currency by North Koreans much like prison inmates might use cigarettes. North Koreans reportedly value Choco Pies at anywhere from 80 cents to $10 — a lot of money in the DPRK — and some Kaesong workers were getting up to 20 Choco Pies per shift.

The North Korean regime was not okay with this. And so state security forces initially attempted to wage a propaganda campaign against Choco Pies, saying “If the products from the ‘neighborhood downstairs’ are enjoyed unconditionally, the ideology of the people could wither at any moment.” And now, according to South Korean news reports, Pyongyang has outright banned the pies from Kaesong. Workers can be rewarded with sausages, instant noodles, coffee, and chocolate bars — but not Choco Pies.

One Western businessman who regularly travels to the DPRK and just returned from 10 days in-country — he requested anonymity to avoid any backlash from the North Korean regime — tells VICE News that he didn’t see a single Choco Pie in Kaesong. “Orion Choco Pie wrappers used to be common trash up on Jangsu Hill in Kaesong,” he says. “This time I didn't see them.”

Though it might seem counterintuitive in the “Hermit Kingdom,” there is, in fact, a fairly high level of awareness there of foreign brands. Christopher Graper, a guide with North Korea specialists Koryo Tours who also curates a huge collection of historical North Korean images and artifacts for his RetroDPRK project, says it’s “very easy to find foreign brands all the way back to the '60s and '70s, even in propaganda images.”

Graper explains that these would have all been “likely gifted from overseas Koreans, or donated in some sort of butter trade with other socialist countries."

North Korea fires ballistic missiles off eastern coast. Read more here.

As serious as Kim clearly is about the capitalist influence of mediocre baked goods, those working to disarm the regime tell VICE News they can’t be bothered.

"I don’t comment on Choco Pies,” says Tony Namkung, a high-level negotiator who has accompanied Governor Bill Richardson, President Jimmy Carter, and Google’s Eric Schmidt to North Korea. “We’re trying to prevent a nuclear arms race in the region.”據《商業內幕》報道，在特殊的冷戰時期，克里姆林宮十分害怕李維斯（Levi’s）、麥當勞（McDonald’s）等一系列西方腐朽文化標識。如今那樣的情況已不復存在。

去年十月，參觀莫斯科列寧墓地的遊客遭到拒絕，因爲布爾什維克革命的領袖不接受前來參觀的遊客。爲什麼不呢？原來是一場由可口可樂公司贊助的旨在推廣索契冬奧會的活動擋住了其墓地的進口。

然而在朝鮮，政府當局仍然視外國產品爲潛在的危險。不過目前令金正恩（Kim Jong-un）憂心的並不是李維斯牛仔褲和麥當勞巨大的“M”形商標。事實上他正在竭力抵制由韓國美味的巧克力派帶來的負面影響。

位於首爾的好麗友食品有限公司（Orion Confectionery）自1974年起開始生產巧克力派——山寨版的田納西小甜餅。30年後的今天，韓國企業開始在朝鮮邊境一個名叫開城（Kaesong）的25平方英里的特別行政區辦工廠。目前，125家韓國公司僱傭5萬2千名朝鮮員工。朝鮮政府按照每位員工每月100美元的標準報酬，其中每位員工大約能得到67美元。

然而平壤卻禁止在開城的韓國企業經理向朝鮮員工發放福利與津貼。所以他們只好用巧克力派來獎勵員工了。

柯蒂斯·梅爾文（Curtis Melvin）是約翰霍普金斯高級國際研究院（Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies）美朝學院的研究員，他說相比小甜餅，巧克力派“還不夠好”，它們被朝鮮人當成貨幣，就像牢獄裏的犯人使用香菸一樣。據報道在朝鮮，巧克力派值80分至10美元不等，開城員工每個輪班能得到多達20個巧克力派。

朝鮮政府對此深表不悅，於是朝鮮國家安全部門首當其衝發起一項抵制巧克力派的“洗腦運動”，並稱“如果人們無條件地享用來自‘鄰國’的產品，那麼人們的意識形態也隨時有可能動搖。”韓國的報道稱，現在平壤已經全面禁止來自開城的派。給員工的獎勵包括香腸、泡麪和條狀巧克力——就是沒有巧克力派。

一位定期前往朝鮮並於10天前剛剛回國的西方商人告訴VICE新聞在開城他連可口可樂的影子都沒見到。“過去，開城長壽山（Jangsu Hill）上堆滿了好麗友巧克力派的廢棄包裝紙，”他說。“這一次我卻什麼也沒看見。”

儘管在“封閉之國”這有悖直覺，但事實上在這裏外國品牌的意識相當高。高麗旅社(Koryo Tours)的導遊克里斯多夫·格雷珀（Christopher Graper）是一位朝鮮專家，他的“RetroDPRK”項目擁有大量朝鮮歷史圖片和手工藝品。他說“六七十年代外國品牌隨處可見，即使是那些洗腦的形象。”

格雷珀解釋說這些東西“可能是海外朝鮮人的贈禮，或是同其他社會主義國家進行黃油貿易時得到的捐贈。”

嚴肅的金正恩清楚地明白普通烘焙食品的資本主義影響，那些致力於推翻政權的人們告訴VICE新聞，他們不會受到干擾。

“對於巧克力派我不予置評，”曾經陪同過比爾·理查森（Bill Richardson）州長、吉米·卡特（Jimmy Carter）總統以及谷歌董事長埃裏克·施密特（Eric Schmidt）的高層談判家託尼·南宮道（Tony Namkung）說道。“我們正盡力避免該地區發生核軍備競賽。”