Let the Music Play

Of the thousands of defectors, there is something deeply telling and rather triumphant about the story of one in particular. Kim Chul-woong, a former pianist with the State Symphony Orchestra in Pyongyang, left NK for the love of jazz. I feel his story is an important reminder about the veneer of communism. When one sees images of what look like relatively well-off, happy, engaged, and talented people taking part in the performance culture of Pyongyang, one must always remember that it is all one big facade. It is meant for us, the outside world, to keep us thinking that nothing is really as bad as it seems. Kim Chul-woong reminds us that even the little freedoms denied can push someone to something drastic:

"I liked jazz too much," Kim, 33, said in a recent interview at a coffee shop in northern Seoul. "I needed the freedom of music. I wanted to play jazz in front of an audience and imagined how great it would be."

Now Kim has his jazz and his audience and doesn't have to fear who might be coming to find him because the expression of his soul doesn't fall in step with the jackboot rhythm.