Skirts go up in Pyongyang but strategies remain shrouded

KEEPING track of women's hemlines is, admittedly, an unusual way to judge the mindset of a country's leader.

But that is just what veteran North Korea watchers have resorted to in trying to peer into one of the world's most isolated countries and divine what its new young leader, Kim Jong-un, is thinking. For weeks now, those analysts have puzzled over photos of women sporting miniskirts and heels in downtown Pyongyang, a stunning change from the years when Western wear was mostly shunned in favour of billowy traditional dresses or drab Mao-style work uniforms.

Then, Kim himself was shown on state TV giving a thumbs up to a girl band featuring leggy string players performing for him and his generals, and the debate over deeper meaning began in earnest.

In a political system that tightly choreographs its messages, could short skirts - along with the appearance of Mickey Mouse and a film clip of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa at the same concert - indicate some rethinking of the North's attitudes towards the West? Or was the fashion statement decidedly less weighty: perhaps another short-lived attempt to distract an unhappy populace?

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Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul, counts himself in the hopeful camp. He calls recent changes in the North ''a glasnost'' - a shift he said was supported by a new generation of Communist Party members, mostly the old elite's children who, like Kim, have travelled and may envision Chinese-style economic reforms.


On the other side are analysts such as Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea specialist at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, who says any belief in real change based on Kim's education in Switzerland as a teenager is wishful thinking.


''If exposure to European cosmopolitanism were a cure for totalitarianism, one wonders how Pol Pot, who spent four years in Paris in his mid-20s, missed out on the transformative experience,'' he said, referring to the murderous former dictator of Cambodia.

North Korea analysts can hardly be blamed for trying to cobble together whatever scraps of information they can find.

The world knows precious little of Kim, including exactly how old he is (the best guess is in his 20s) and whether he is married (news reports helpfully point out that a mystery woman making increasingly frequent appearances with him might be his sister, wife or girlfriend).

So far, the puzzle pieces leave little doubt that Kim is trying to forge a very different leadership style than his father, Kim Jong-il. The son, by comparison, appears to be more approachable (photos show him hooking arms with workers and soldiers and playing with kindergarten children); less threatened by foreign cultures and apparently more willing to admit failure (he told the nation of a botched rocket launch in April).

But there is also ample evidence that Kim Jong-un, who took over late last year after his father's death, does not plan to veer far from his father's and grandfather's governing policies on most issues, including maintaining a strong military and nuclear arms program and issuing frequent, florid threats against South Korea and the US.

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