North Korea
There is an excellent article running in today’s LA Times about North Korea. It brings to mind two points.1) The article is very sketchy about this but I’m really interested in how well effective Kim Jong Il is at convincing North Koreans that their misery is not his doing. Those who come back from officia guided tours tend to suggest that he is enormously good. But that does not necessarily prove that he is as effective as he makes it seem. Visitors would come back from Moscow (which was less effectively controlled) not fully aware of what we now know to be the disintegration of Soviet power.
This article suggests that Kim Jong Il may be losing some control:
The prolonged hardship has left North Koreans increasingly disillusioned with leader Kim Jong Il and the ideology of national self-reliance that once held the nation together. People say the regime has less and less control.
With corruption running rampant, the state is no longer solely in charge of commerce. People hustle to sell anything they can — prohibited videos of South Korean soap operas, real estate and official travel documents. In this free-for-all, some people have prospered. Many more are just a step ahead of starvation.
But this again is not definitive. The LA Times interviewed mainly defectors, either begging for food in China or living in South Korea. Such people might exaggerate general dislike or apathy. They might do this because they want to please their audience (particularly the people they interviewed in China who will be heading back into North Korea). Or they might do this because after having lived somewhere much better North Korea seems much worse. At the very least one expects those who leave to be more “free thinkers” than those who stay.
2) This is an easy point to make, but I’ll make it anyway: Kim Jong Il is scum. While his economy stands in ruins, he expends massive resources on weaponry. I understand that he thinks it is necessary for his security. But at this point one must ask: security towards what end?
I will close with a quote from the article that really struck me. Kim Ji Eun described to interviewers the problems of practicing medicine without adequate anesthesia:
North Koreans are tough and used to bearing pain. They’re not like South Koreans who scream and shout about the slightest thing.
I am glad that I haven’t been forced to develop the pain tolerance of the average North Korean.
posted by Michael Benson @ 10:06 AM
3 Comments:
hey michael,
i heard about the article, though i haven't read it through yet. north korea's been on my mind a lot lately, because i've been discussing it a bit with my students and my host mother (as much as they are comfortable discussing it, as the U.S. always comes into the mix and they are afraid of offending me), though there are a couple things that are instantly frustrating/deeply saddening about it. one, that everyone i've spoken to in south korea (admittedly, i haven't spoken to many staunch conservatives) almost desperately want the koreas to reunite, and think it will happen with the next few decades, but aknowledge that kim jong il, though obviously very interested in constant aid from the south, is not interested in reuniting, and 2) that the u.s. government is in some way culpable for the inability of the two koreas to reunite, though no one can quite explain why, i.e. what the U.S. government's motivation would be for keeping the country divided. when a class asked me about what i thought of kim jong il, back in the fall, i admitted that i thought he was crazy (to laughter), but in truth i would be careful about criticizing him too much. some south koreans aren't that worried about north korea having nuclear weapons; they'll even agree with kim jong il when he points to the war in iraq as evidence of u.s. aggression, an excuse that north korea needs to protect itself. this is a bit odd, if you believe as perhaps our government does, that the U.S. is working for a 'nuclear-free korean peninsula' (and keeping some u.s. troops in south korea) to protect south korea from its closest aggressor. it's enough to make me dizzy sometimes, how north korea is both south korea's worst enemy and closest ally. as for the refugees, they get caught in the middle, too. the numbers of people defecting to the south are up, though i think the korean government would (and maybe did at some point, though i'm not positive) actually send refugees back if they thought it would significantly improve their relationship with pyongyang, and thus their chances for reunification. from what i've read of refugees in the newspapers here, i think you're right that the 'free thinkers' are the ones that tend to defect, though i really think that if it were easier to get into china or south korea from the north, there'd be droves and droves of people crossing the border. that's why the media lockdown is so crucial for the n. korean government, though it is breaking down and north koreans are seeing more and more that they've been left behind economically (at one point many did actually believe that north korea was at least no worse off than south korea). but all in all i think that kim's propaganda was very effective for a long time. i wish i could point you to some solid sources, but there was a documentary released recently by a british team that was made about a north korean girl, a gymnast i think, who was part of a gigantic annual performance. i haven't seen it but i heard it was a great window into north korean life.
Paragraphs Tamara! :)
they'll even agree with kim jong il when he points to the war in iraq as evidence of u.s. aggression, an excuse that north korea needs to protect itself.
Remember when I said "But at this point one must ask: security towards what end?" This is what I'm talking about. Starving your citizenry to death to counter U.S. Hegemony is indefensible. At some point you need to deal with the world as it actually exists, and make a decision that is best for your population with that world in mind. Security does not trump all other concerns.
yeah, heh, sorry for the lack of indentation.
i see what you mean, i more pointed out that view as something that shocks me about the south korean perspective.
but it feels kind of silly to be speculating about kim jong il's motivations when, like i said before, i see him to be an insane dictator completely out of touch with reality.
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