The North Korean Museum in Cambodia
Although my interview got totally ruined by this question, chances are I will still encounter it in the near future. So this power drove me to make a quick and brief research on it, regardless of how depressed I am right now. Life doesn’t always go as you expect, after all.
An eccentric tourist attraction in Cambodia which cost the North Korea more than US$24 million and four years to build opened last December. The Angkor Panorama Museum, located near the Ankor Wat in Siem Reap, was supported by a North Korean art work factory that creates Soviet-esque monuments.
Reliable source tells the press that the North Korean government is facing serious financial crisis due to economic sanctions and will need to create more money sources. The museum just built, also, is one of the strategies.
The art museum showed increasing relationship between the Cambodia government and the North Korean officials. Some media platforms even criticized such move might harm Cambodia’s historic status.
The Phnom Penh post reports, tourists may keep themselves away from the historic legacy due to the relation with such an authority that overlook human rights.
Sources: Japan Times: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/18/asia-pacific/mysterious-north-korean-museum-opens-cambodia/#.VvYjveJ97IV
The professor’s question: How do you view this and do you agree or disagree with this move?
Possible answer: The North Korea is a country ruled under the Communist party. The operation of such authority is always lack of transparency and the messages they convey bear suspicion since they usually only bring about certain ideas that are in favor of their rule. There are serious concerns that they may try to control the tourists’ cognition toward controversial issues and the process they preserve the historical sites remains unsafe. Therefore, I disagree with such a move and call for global media to supervise the operation.
