Footage of Dalrymple in North Korea

Many of you may know of Dalrymple’s 1989 visit to North Korea as part of a communist British delegation to the World Festival of Youth and Students, as recounted in his book The Wilder Shores of Marx.

Skeptical Doctor reader Yakimi has made a tremendous discovery, finding actual footage of Dalrymple in a YouTube video of the event. See Yakimi’s note – and the link to the video – in his message below:

Off-topic, but I have a discovery to share.

You may recall Theodore Dalrymple’s account of his journey in 1989 to the World Festival of Youth and Students held in North Korea. I was recently rereading that chapter of The Wilder Shores of Marx when I had the idea of seeing whether there existed any footage of him at the event. As luck would have it, YouTube is host to a two-hour film (http://youtube.com/watch?v=z972J4lVttU) documenting the festival. Dalrymple mentioned that the British delegation wore a uniform of “stormtrooper brown”, so I revieiwed the footage keeping an eye out for them.

At 31:39, a figure wearing a brown shirt and strongly resembling Dalrymple as he appears on the book’s dust jacket can be seen, resting his chin on his fist. He appears again at 32:35, holding a camera.

I do believe that to be Dalrymple. What do you think?

(Sadly, the footage of Dalrymple telling the wrestler that he hates sports or that of him being forced to dance were not featured.)

What a great find! H/t Yakimi

5 thoughts on “Footage of Dalrymple in North Korea

  1. Pingback: Dalrymple in North Korea | Theodore Dalrymple

  2. Andrew S

    It’s definitely TD in the video footage, although I had no idea he had to wear that type of Communist clothing while he was there! He didn’t mention it in the book, which is one of my favourite publications of his. I’d seen the video before but hadn’t watched it closely enough to notice him.

    Reply

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