Mickey Mouse and mayonnaise: North Korea has never had it so good

In a small-scale relaxing of North Korea’s rigid isolation, Kim Jong Un is allowing new kinds of Western and American pop culture symbols to appear in his country, including Mickey Mouse and NBA stars like former Chicago Bulls forward Dennis Rodman - and “luxury” goods like mayonnaise. Kim’s regime is also curbing its harsh intolerance of high-tech gadgets and consumer goods, the possession of which could sometimes mean prison or worse.

After years of economic reforms and exchanges with the outside world, the government is no longer able to control its citizens’ minds in the old rigid fashion.

Zhang Yushan, North Korea expert at China’s Jilin Academy of Social Sciences

Digital cameras, credit cards, and cosmetics – the basics of Western and Chinese consumer culture - are now showing up in one of the world’s most ideologically rigid states. Analysts say aid from and trade with neighbouring China is a significant source of wealth and goods. The message, if not the reality, is that daily life is improving. The relaxation is significant since the idea of leisure time was officially disallowed under Kim Jong Il, whose famed “military-first policy” kept the nation on high alert in anticipation of a U.S. or South Korean attack.

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