When the Political Spotlight is On: Social Evaluations of Ri Sŭnggi and Ryǒ Kyǒnggu, Two Chemical Engineers in North Korea

Abstract

Dr. Ri Sŭnggi is celebrated alongside vinalon (also known as vinylon) in North Korea. As a synthetic fiber produced from polyvinyl alcohol, vinalon was invented by the research team to which Ri Sŭnggi belonged in 1939, and industrial production began in North Korea in 1961. Yet, until 1958, it was another chemist by the name of Ryǒ Kyǒnggu whose project on polyvinyl chloride was deemed to have the potential for further rapid advancement and thus received more media attention than Ri’s research on polyvinyl alcohol fiber. Once the polyvinyl alcohol fiber was dubbed vinalon and its industrial production was accelerated, however, the social evaluation of the two chemists’ research and even of the chemists themselves changed. This paper addresses North Korea’s two famous chemical engineers, Ri Sŭnggi and Ryǒ Kyǒnggu, paying attention to how the sociopolitical context of technology in North Korea conditioned the evaluation of these two chemists in accordance with vinalon’s symbolic importance. This research will demonstrate that North Korea’s evaluation of scientists was contingent upon its shifting socio-political interests.

Keywords

• north korea
• ri sŭnggi
• ryǒ kyǒnggu
• experimental project
• techno-nationalism