Trash or treasure? A researcher learns about North Korean culture through rubbish washed ashore
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2022
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South Korean professor Kang Dong-wan used to learn about North Korean culture by meeting with tourists in Chinese cities. Restricted travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic has made his job more difficult, but not impossible. Since September 2020, Dong-wan has collected some 2,000 pieces of rubbish washed ashore on South Korean border-island beaches, including snack bags, juice pouches, sweet wrappers and drink bottles. From those products, he’s learned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stepped up domestic manufacturing to meet the demands of his people.
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It felt like as if he is talking about some lost tribe or culture and now he tracking that to know how they used to live.
The difference is the tribe he researched is still exist and have the power to cause a nuclear holocaust
Exactly
@@c.o.y9418 and also the tribe is the same people as he, just ruled by a communist dynasty
Agreed
@@c.o.y9418 hahahaha 😂 facts
His attitude for his job deserves respect.
I mean, his research got funding from government or Uni and without any finding then he would lost one of his source income.. 😅😅
@@garryjohnson6794 but not everyone show the love for their work like him. You can get paid by working for a company but that doesnt mean you love your job
@@DieshockX how do you know he loves his job? Do you know him personally? 😅😅
@@garryjohnson6794 I mean it's kinda show in the video that he love his work and have a great commitment to it.
@@garryjohnson6794 also i have no clue how you know his work is funded,its like you personally know him or sthing
Trash is common but his passion is unique.
Yes Confucius
His first video, he seemed shock to learn that they've got reproductive system alike to us. His second vid, he was in awe that they sleep, laying down.. This's his 3rd, now telling us they make messes like each sad individual that don't put trash in bins..
David Attenborough eat his heart out for this reseach..
it's not any trash.. it's NORTH KOREAN TRASH... THE HOLY GRAIL!!!
South Korea is big on research and they are very studious about many things.
i love your comments mwaa
This is taking the saying to another level:
"One person's trash is another man's treasure"
And taking it pretty literally as well
And on the flip side, I remember a video in which a North Korean defector told the story of how, when he was fleeing NK as a boy/young man with his Chinese guide, he picked up a discarded plastic bottle at the border and it was the most amazing, miraculous object to him - a bottle that was lightweight and didn’t smash when you dropped it?? It seemed to him like such a precious item. His guide told him to leave it, explaining there were plenty more where he was going.
"One man's stone is another man's gem."
i think thats wa hat the titles going for im not sure tho
@@Smile936 yeah... I have heard it frome voice Asia I guess.. His step father was beating him for dropping the bottle..
When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense - throughout the history of archaeology, we’ve learned a lot about the secrets of the past by examining objects that were once discarded years ago - here, we may be looking at a nation which exists in the present day, but as they keep so much of their activity under wraps, it turns out that methods like these are just as useful when studying objects from the present day as they are for historic ones.
.
We may have to start doing this with Russia and china soon, considering there rapidly to become detached from the rest of the world and within a few years we won't even know what it is like in Russia. I mean we already don't a whole lot but soon we will know next to nothing.
"under wraps"
@@tryambaknathjha7574 is that a pun
It's not that they hide their activities, it's just that they have a indoctrinated hatred for the west. Not for no reason if you were to ask me.
This is actually a useful seaech , as our media potrayed North Korea as a Depressing Grey Country and that makes us to think they did not consume the same product like we do .
Those people who thinks north Korea is still stone age need to grow up living in north Korea probably the same like 1990-2000s yes it still lacking behind modern society
Same goes to sub Saharan Africa they really lacks behind
@@PatrikVolkov1994 while the subway is much more older dating back to soviet era and the Ww2 era about 1970-1960-1980-or 1948 era
Many buildings were also built by soviet union so the architecture all resembles at that time , contemporary to the soviet era .
Also make sure that this trash is really from North korea and not from ships or south korea itself or china?
Also ,it is unknown whether these trash is of the commoners or is that of the rich and Elite,party leaders ,kim jong un and family using remnants?
@@PatrikVolkov1994 those "remnants of trash" are mainly from the capital .the provincial area of NK is very poor .people there are starving and underweight they cant go to the capital so they cant go and get a new job some women are too skinny to get monthly periods .they dont have electricity so winters are always cold .just because you think life in the capital is nice that doesnt mean the lives of the provincial working class are the same...atleast in africa people can travel outside their country to turn their life around and arent force to do anything they didnt want..
@@abhimanyuvarmma7955 party leaders would be consuming real imported stuff not domestically produced stuff and that is heavily regulated so you'll never find that trash floating in the ocean.
Only the elite rich can afford those items
To those people who are making fun of him read his whole interview not in parts . He had elaborately described about North korean economy, its society ,its regime and many more . So stop being dumb and ignorant
This is a pretty cool debate in archeology on whether or not archeology methods can be applied to modern day humans due to the overwhelming amount of manufactured goods / trash generated. Very cool to see it in action here.
Why couldn’t it be applied?
@@stabbityjoe7588 in op's last point, they mentioned that it is due to the overwhelming amount of manufactured goods/trash, so tracking it down would be virtually impossible to do
@@alvis2580 I’ve heard of an instance where a piece of discarded trash found at a site in the desert was used to be able to identify the time period (mid 1980s) based on the design of the label on the container. So it’s not completely useless
@@stabbityjoe7588 what was the place?
@@h.m5386 it was in the saharah, this is the video about it
ua-cam.com/video/twAP3buj9Og/v-deo.html
North Korea is so strange, unorthodox, unconventional, bizzare but also fascinating it's really a different dimension from another reality. A dystopian reality that even their trash can be treated as artifacts that illustrates how they live differently from us.
Your comment is so strange, unorthodox, unconventional, bizzare, and pretentious
What's really strange is people from the West saying that North Korea is failing when in fact Capitalism in the West is failing because of the PONZI SCHEME that is in place
This comment has 4 replies out of which only 1 shows up. What is the matter with comments these days? Only a few seem to show up.
@@pranavnyavanandi9710 that's because the other ones are flagged as inappropriate or spam
For me, NK is kind of Korea in alternate universe which remain frozen in 1960s in most aspect of live.
this would be so valubable in south korea im actually wondering what snacks they have in north koreaaa
Fake rip off of south korean snacks
^^^ and also daddy kim jong un chips
They’re starving they don’t have snacks
@@brettpeebles6566 not all. the people in the capital can afford it, and that's about it
@中国历史Did you even watch the video? “Clear copies of south korean and japanese designs”
Some of the packaging shown here is almost identical to south korean brands. You must be chinese am I right?
this is great, not only does this help with learning more about life in North Korea but he also picks up trash from the ocean and beaches.
So they’ve reached the industrial stage
Hmmm... interesting
dude they had nukes
Achievement unlocked........
@@evryatis9231 Honestly a lot of people underestimate North Korea, it’s true the vast majority of them live in poverty but it’s because of how their society is structured. I remember watching a video about a North Korean escapee explain that they do have a localised version of the internet known as intranet (something airports usually use) and they do have a nuclear arsenal. He said how surprised he was with how South Koreans viewed North Korea as a backwards nation, which it is however it’s certainly not “underdeveloped”.
@@paemonyes8299 welp yes exactly.
But what do you want to do against propaganda. If NK was as underdevelopped as people make it out to be, it would have been invaded already
It's a very resourceful approach to research hindered by travel restrictions, but not knowing who or which strata of population eats those can be a bit of shortcoming in research as most of the NK people may not have access to many of these goods
Fair, although I'd assume such deficiencies would be accounted for either by him or during peer review before publication
They may or may not. We didn't know for sure but having these floating around indicates that it was well spread among the populance who throws it into the sea.
I think it is exactly why he do these research. He also planned to travel to North Korea once covid restriction were lifted to further his research. Until then i guess we will never know.
But if it really did "increased manufacturing to meet domestic demands" exactly like what he said and these products were indeed easily obtained by everyday North Korean citizen, I think most western audience still wouldn't believe it.
I mean there are a lot of western audience who really thought North Korea doesn't have plastic wrapping after all.
Is very likely most of the trash are from lower to medium classes, I don't think many rich of North Korea would do their groceries in their local supermarkets. Besides there kinda remind me how 70 years ago Spain used to be under a dictatorship yet there still had goods like snacks and pop culture, just not from outside.
Exactly.
"some juices used tree leaves as sugar substitute indicating sugar shortage"
Uhh.. What if they just want to consume the more healthier version of sweetener?? It's not bad..
That actually makes sense
*north korea start using paper bag
'It appears they've shortage of plastic'
yeah, this guy make the conclusion so rationalized. Making sense doesn't mean it's true then.
... wow I'm sure you gave your opinion as an expert that spent years studying in this particular field and are in no way wrong in your analysis.
@@grainsingh3095 HMM YES of course there are sugar experts that are professionals in the economics of the different types of sugar that can be used in different reasons..
are you braindead? genuine question..
Back in 2018, my mom took a trip to north korea for 5 days. the interesting thing she told me about north korea was that, the local tour guide wondered why tourists always wanted to know what the "real" north korea was like. She asked my mom "That's like asking a chinese or american what did the real China/US look like, which would be impossible for an individual to simply conclude a short answer. My country might be not perfect, but it is not 'fake'."
I think that's the alternate answer to "we can't acknowledge the fact this isn't already the real NK"
The same as most countries where the big cities are all glamorous. However in dictator nations, the disparity is orders of magnitudes higher between the haves and have nots.
It literally is fake. During tours they place actors and government officials in all the tourist spots to make it seem like NK is nice and fun
Bruh
Those North Korean tours are obviously trying to portray a better North Korea than there really is and every tour is the same and you can not leave the designated areas. It’s like if you went to New York but couldn’t leave Central Park, the Empire State Building, and World Trade Center and they hired people to act like they are super happy.
S. Korean researcher: hmm it appears they eat food and snacks like we do
South Koreans be like that 😂😂😂😂😂
@@fabiojr8082 i meann their education system prolly demonizes north korea and painted them with an impoverished 3rd world disease ridden country lead by a crazy man who wants to start ww3
How embarrassing that you mock some thing you don’t understand
Yeah it is an extra step to confirm that when you can't just amazon prime N.Korean snacks into your office.
Party pooper
Is it ok to feel surprised to know that even North Koreans have plastic packed food? 😳
I mean if they can build their own nukes, bombs, and weapons, then it's safe to say they can make plastic wrapping on a large scale
They have everything don't believe in probaganda.
their neighbor is China
no?
I am surprised that we treat North Korea as some sort of historical archeological site.
This is actually one pretty clever solution to the isolation problem, we could even use this applied to other cases to because you can see trash from all over the world in some beaches
I guess only like this specific case it could work due to enormous amount of trash being generated, it would be virtually impossible to track down ig if we wanna use it on other cases
Boy their design is legit 👍
its already mentioned that they copied their neighbors design though
I mean if you rocketman fanboy you can call even trash as treasure despite not even want stay in NK
@@agps4418 so what dawg??!!! Don't you see China 😂common man don't be blind, China copies a lot too even some other nations in Europe
Cool
@@anaskhoiri3653 go and live in Japan North Korean bubble you gonna experience North Korean feeling without living in North Korea
_'One man's trash is another ones treasure'_
This is no different than studying the trash from past civilizations buried deep in the ground.
Kim will be mad if he found out you took their trash 😂 he keeps everything secret
And then he would begun to execute his citizen who throws trash not in the place.
@@brobruh5857 I'm afraid he will make a nuclear threat again 😂
Interesting that they use kilojoules as a metric for caloric intake. Maybe it is the same in Northern Europe? I'm not certain.
Many countries still use kilojoules
kcal and kj are both being displayed on things in europe.
They say that there need be uniformity for "nationhood."
@@JoeShine95 what do you mean "still"? It's quite the opposite: the calorie is a relict of the pre-metric times, seperseded by the joule. The advantages of the joule is that it is standardized and consistent with the rest of the metric system. It can be defined entirely in terms of fundamental units without a reference to particular materials or weird factors. Simply defined, it's the amount of work a force of 1 newton does over a displacement of 1 meter. See? No mention of what the source of the force is, or what is the object it is applied to, because that doesn't matter. Compare it to the definition of the calorie, as the amount of energy needed to heat 1 gram of water up 1 degree. You may notice that it references water, and water may be all sorts of things. Often times there are salts, gases and microbs in there, all of which alter its thermodynamic properties. I guess nutriology still uses calories because it really doesn't matter if you ingest ten calories more or ten calories less. Science, on the other hand, requires simple and precise definitions; it doesn't tolerate any arbitrariness.
TLDR; ALL HAIL SI, EVERYTIME, EVERYWHERE!
@@miloradowicz I meant to say 'still only' rather than just 'still'. I understand that the calorie is a result of the kj
Now that's what I call modern archeology! Keep up the great work sir and great reportage, SCMP!
Zamn. He really be doing archaeology on a society that still exists.
I appreciate the opportunity to learn new things because of this youtube channel!!! MY GREATEST APPRECIATION ♥ ❤ 💓
You don't want to be that guy. He is collecting trash for living.
That guy: this professor
it's like archaeology. You can learn a lot by going through peoples trash
You'll be surprised how many information we can find out in someone's trash,especially over a period of time
It’s cool that he was able to find out much about their current culture through trash.
"Their" mfer this man is literally Korean too tf💀 North and South Koreans are one nation😭
This guy's enthusiasm for his job is inspiring
this definitely helps to show that north koreans are just ppl. all of them have their own preferences for things as small as drawing stars or what fruit juice is their favorite. they’re not aliens
Not all of them have the luxury of knowing what's their favourite, many of them are forced to eat grass because there's such an awful shortage of food. Only the people in the capital can afford packaged foods like this
@@satapon4129 propaganda overload
I'm curious to know what types of medical diseases and domestic problems people experience in North Korea
North Korea is ranked 39 when compared to Asian countries and here you thinking about those conditions which happen during there famine
And there's no domestic problem
zero covid19 since 2020
Zero covid and today get the first covid cases. People there more discipline than any
The coronavirus with 2 years delay 🤣
He took the phrase *"One man's trash is another man's treasure"* to the next level
Stelvia is being used as a more healthy sugar, it doesn’t mean a lack of sugar.
Yep it's all propaganda
number one we've learned, is that dprk seems to have waste management issues for those stuff to get washed into the beach 😅
Wait you're telling me they have an array of choices in snacks and drinks? I thought they had no food or ate the same food all their life. I have been lied to by the media 😳
Rather nobody is the wiser. Not much is known about North Korea
@@houghwhite411 nope, yall have been lied to a lot about nk
They are most likely major cities. If you listen to escapees, they had to eat insects and rats to stay alive. You are not lied to by the media.
@@aquilesbrinco8778 not technically lied to but blurred, we do see in some documentaries that they had modern supermarkets and stuff but they don't elaborate on it.
Lied to or just seen surface level info lol
I admire this person's gut to study their culture on basis of trash
If American media reported this story
“Tea leaves were used instead of sugar, this mean that they must be using all the sugar to build weapons!”
These findings feels very satisfying
If you wish to know about someone, just go through their trash.
But do it before garbage trucks come pick it up
This is so smart, i can't believe we haven't done this
A view in from a different side/angle that we take it for granted, but also insightful.
He found a unique purpose.
What a great guy
As far as we know, this could be showing us really old culture rather than how it’s like today. That trash could’ve been floating around for a while…
Is not there have an old culture, what happends is there are so isolated there lack any info about the outside world and viceversa.
In the world where everyone only knows to insult North Korea. One man is doing an important job to actually search for the truth about life in North Korea not just the headlines.
To be fair, i am actually quite impressed of this man passion. Well, maybe one day he would actually travel to North Korea once Covid travel bans were lifted.
I never knew that anyone wants to insult NK, let alone eveyone?
He can travel there yes. On a guided tour. Or he could interview recent refugees... Seems easier.
@@hannesRSA I mean we have every reason to hate NK and feel bad for its citizens. There are so many stories of defectors who tell that just them leaving they made almost all of their relatives be seen as second class citizens
@@hannesRSA I still can't believe that there are people who are justifying north korea XD
What I found interesting is that North Korea uses the same *metric* system that a lot of countries uses (except largely U.S. which uses a mix of metric and imperial system).
The weight is measured in *kilograms* in those packages. I just found it interesting that despite how much the North Korean regime protests against "Western" influences, bits and pieces of "Western" influence still manages to seep in their highly guarded society.
For example, I wonder if the North Koreans have the word "Internet" in their country. South Korea certainly uses a "Hangeul-ified" spelling of the word "Internet" as 인터넷
Of course they're using metric units , it's objectively superior to anything else
That, is normal...
North Korea still engages on occasion in international business and used to be pretty strongly tied to trade with China and the USSR before it collapsed. It was probably profitable for them to adapt to the other nations' measurement systems. But yeah, it is a little funny to not see a more local style of measurement, isn't it?
As for internet, North Korea is known to have an _intranet_ (named Kwangmyong), that can only access servers within it's separate network. If you are interested in NK software, I recommend you look up the Red Star OS.
North Korean dictionary has the word, although it is spelled as 인터네트.
They only recently (1950) become recluse, prior to that they've been in contact with many western society so it's natural they're using metric system. If they're so different then they wouldn't use tanks, heli, nuclear instead using land dragons, core magic, and floating ship of the heaven.
That was really interesting 👍
Looking at those Korean characters make me wish the two Korea can unite as one.
If u know how they talk...its quite hard tho. South korean use lots of konglish while north korean stay with pure korean and very formal. Many north korean refugee struggle so much, that it took them to make a dictionary for new comer for adjusting quick.
Same reunification should happen in India pak bangladesh, moldova romania
Many south koreans in the younger generation don't want it tho.
Most of South Koreans disagreed
@@7hz8 North Koreas so called “purified Korean language” is just another North Korea Propaganda.
In reality, North Korea has alot Russian loan words in their language due to Soviet influence over the country
1:08 lol that last point like south korea doesnt have a sexism problem
Every country in world has this kind of problem
lol you comment like your country doesn't have a sexism problem >_>
@@0x1EGEN every country has 😂
@@X78Global Yes? That's what I just implied to the OP.
Much less than north korea, tf are you? Kim Jang Un?
I like his attitude. Definitely where there's a will, there's a way
to undertsand all that just looking at the waste left, is amazing
even snacks have more freedom
I like how a leader of a foreign country cares more about North koreans than their leader itself
I love watching his dedication and entuciasm 🥰
There’s QR codes on some of the products!! Meaning there’s enough consumers using smartphones in North Korea. Fascinating.
I hope north korea never copies tiktok 💀
Can you give me which time part?
@@user-og3zk8jn9k the very third bottle he picked up on in the beginning 0:02. you'd have to slow it down to see it.
@@user-og3zk8jn9k also 0:54, it's a little hard to see
@@user-og3zk8jn9k i also see 1:22
This is like a detective. You go into a room and you know that there will be clues from the discards in the trash can and especially in the bathroom and bedroom. 😂
Sounds like they ran into ancient Egyptian tomb
Great observation from these trash finds 👍
These researchers knows and does work which much of the world doesn't even know.
So their law not really strict when they can just toss the trash away just like everyone else.
His counterpart in NK probably has a way easier job since SK culture is all over the place in comparison lol
But the I don't think the stream will be in their favor at any time of the year 🤔
Amazing. I wanna learn more
SALUTES!!! MOST RIGHTEOUS WAY to get answers to curiosity... my bows and respects to the righteous curious youngsters... utmost sincere gratitude to scmp/hong kong-china for sharing this righteous curious...
On the other hand a trash in the shore needs to be cleaned or picked up! It'll ruined the beauty of the shore!
Innovative way for research
This is such a out of the box way to approach a study for a secluded country.
N. Korea always feels like that one island where people are from ancient world and they have some weird weird cultures but just actually a neighboring country just isolated from the rest
이 뉴스를 scmp에서 보게 될 줄이야...😁😁 굉장하네요
I love passionate ppl bro
U go bro!!!!
ah my favorite branch of science, trashology - the study of trash
lol kidding aside, this man's way of researching about North Korea, given that information and travel is not freely and openly available, is actually genius. it just goes to show that despite its secretive ways, North Korea still has its similarities with the rest of the world
very interesting how ideology could not only set nations apart but close brotherhood into alienation.
Well I mean thats exactly what happened with Germany in the 1950s. As soon as Korea wants to unite though, perhaps they'll do it within one year. How alienated both may be, you're still one, speak the same language and such.
I'm surprised the labels weren't more related to Chinese products, since they are direct allies
It's illegal to import food, even from China
This is actually really cool. It’s like spying on the most secret country, and you’re just going through their trash in the open.
One person's trash is another's treasure.
now kim jung un is going to ban packaged snacks and drinks
An excellent way to learn about the mysterious North Korean culture and way of life.
Mindblowing🤯
What a genius professor
Why does using tree leaves as sugar substitute indicate sugar shortage? I mean, is there no other valid reason?
North Korea is no stranger to famines, droughts, and people constantly dying from starvation. It really wouldn't be a stretch to say sugar substitutes could indicate a sugar shortage, considering their circumstances.
@@weissrose1081 So. there can be other reasons and this is just a hunch ?
Researcher: "Surprised"
Some N. Korean dude: it's just a trash bro
XD
Now I am curious on which tree leaves did these products used to substitute sugar
Trash has so much to say??? Wow. Never thought of that!!!!
It's like when India's trash flows into Pakistan we learn about their brands
Hahaha 😂😂
Finds Maggi packaging in Pakistan: bhai why it smells like chicken curry
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ever heard about Google??
Both countries aren't secretive like North Korea lol
No doubt why he becomes a professor. Doing a simple thing to solve big question.
He is the professor of logic
Super Research
Sometimes someone's trash is treasure for someone!
Technically, South Korea is patriarchal too, but at least they're trying to change that because they know that a developing nation must embrace the equality of men and women in the workforce, education, sports, entertainment, etc or be labeled as "backwards" and "anti-women".
I think thats every country (at least a country that wants economic progress) since you're not shutting 50% out of the (potentially working) population 😂
Yeah........they don't care about the women. They do like having women soldiers tho...........for different purposes
LOL North Korea is such an isolated cultural anomaly that it's being studied like some long forgotten culture :P
I mean I get it, it’s rare to even get snacks as a tourist and anyways your lucky to be even allowed in so I can see why he treasures it
interesting work
I'm surprised to see they even have packaged items
thats very ignorant of you.
and no recycling facilities, I assume
my guy packaged foods have been around for a LONG time
Can you imagine north korea editing this video to make it look like north Korea's trash is quite literally south Korea's treasure for propaganda and making it look like they are richer😂
I'd like to try those snacks and drinks one day, preferably one that is filled of course
That's .... Creative
I wont be surprised if these are sellable in online market
Am I the only one surprised that North Korea actually labels Nutrition Facts and Ingredients on their food items?! 🤔
Just because the citizens are isolated doesn't mean there are frozen in time. Even North Korea knows that technology marches on and there try to apply some of it to keep their population dormant on what is going on.
this is really interesting.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure 🗑🕺💎
1:09 Lol, 'tree leaves'. There's multiple types of trees that are used in western countries as sugar replacements, because they truly can serve as such...
Stevia