Among the many changes the 2000s brought to North Korean mass culture was a new type of positive character: industrial managers. This group included factory directors, chief engineers, chairpersons of collective farms, and others.

To understand the importance of this change, it is important to look back at how managers were previously represented in North Korean cinematography.

APOLOGETIC MANAGERS

In 1961, the North Korean state implemented the “Taean work system,” according to which the Party secretary of an enterprise was supposed to hold a higher status than a top manager did.

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