I know he is dead, Kim Jong-il. I have purposely not written
about him because most intelligent people know what a cruel, sadistic,
schizophrenic person he was, and quite simply I do not want to give much
fanfare in his death. Like most dictators, he died of natural cause, and by
that, I mean no one put a gun to his head and ended 24 million people's
suffering. Now his spawn is set to take over. I wonder if he will be a
figurehead like Bashar al-Assad of Syria. So much secrecy shrouds every aspect
of North Korea we can only guess if the son is going to act as the leader of
North Korea. North Korea is the only Communist country to pass leadership on
from father to son. What started as Confucianism, giving the basis believing
the Emperor has a mandate from heaven and his followers are to be loyal and
obey unconditionally, eventually led to becoming communist as well; this in deference
to Russia and China who established his regime. However, is North Korea a true
Communist country? On the other hand, is it more a feudal kingdom using
communist terminology?
Go back please to 1259 when the Mongolians defeated Koryo
(Korea) after thirty years of fighting. Being incorporated into the Mogul
empire was not pleasant for North Koreans. In 1254, 206,000 men were captured,
the Koryo princes lived as hostages in Bejing and Koroyo was forced to donate
large numbers of virgins to the Mongols. The Mongols used Korea as their base
for attacking Japan.
Then the Ming dynasty
began in China in 1368, and twenty years later, the pro-Ming general Yi
Song-gye commandeered control of the Korean government and in 1392 rose to the
throne. The Yi dynasty, also known as
the Chosun dynasty, lasted until 1910. Even
though it was the longest-lasting dynasty in Asian history, the governments of
Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il refused to accept it as a worthy precursor because,
for much of that period, the Chosun were only vassals of the Chinese. Then in
the 16th and 17th centuries, the Japanese and 160,000 soldiers moved in to
Korea on the way to invade China. After losing their fleet to Korea's armor
plated warships in 1592, the Japanese withdrew in 1598. With the epidemics,
famine and peasant revolts they were unprepared and overrun by the Manchus and
reduced the Chosun dynasty to a vassal state of the Chinese Ch'ing dynasty.
They banned Christianity in 1786 and in 1866, 13,000 Catholics were executed.
TOTAL CONTROL—
The people of North Korea have never known freedom. After centuries of feudalism, they
experienced Japanese colonialism and the Stalinism of Kim Il-sung and Kim
Jong-il. Social control in North Korea may seem silly unless it happens to you.
Cellphones were banned because it was believed they could be used to detonate
bombs. Radio tuners were rigged so that channels that were not authorized could
not be accessed. Impromptu visits were made to insure people were following the
rules. In 1970, Kim Il-sung directly sanctioned a program begun in 1958 in
which the entire North Korean population was divided into three classes of
Loyalty groups. Roughly a quarter of the people called the core class whose
families were in the pre-liberation era pre -1945, were soldiers, poor farmers,
workers, and office clerks, as well as the ones whose family members were
killed in the war. These members of the core class were given priority over all
others in housing, food, and medical care.
The wavering classes, half the population, are
pre-liberation merchants, farmers, and service workers, as well as immigrants
from South Korea, China, Japan, and families whose members left for South
Korea, but stayed behind themselves.
The third group is
the hostile class, from families that were pre-liberation wealthy landlords, or
merchants, as well as religious teachers and any who uttered discontent, even
in private, with the Kim’s and their command.
Members of the hostile class are not permitted to live in
Pyongyang. They accept the worst jobs,
the poorest housing, and the least of food rations. All citizens of North Korea are scrutinized by
the Ministry of People’s Security, which positions informers in workplaces and
neighborhoods to betray anyone who disparages the regime, even at home. Among the crimes for which one may be castigated
are perfidy to The Great Leader and to The Dear Leader, a crime that comprises permitting
pictures of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il to gather dust and allowing pictures of
the Kim’s that appear in magazines or newspapers to be torn or folded.
Below the loyalty groups, like untouchables in the Hindu
caste system, are the 250,000 people who are held in prison camps. It is not only people accused of crimes who
are sent to these camps, but their families as well. Following the theory of yongoje, family
purge, North Korean officials will gather up and imprison, or at least deport,
three generations of the family of an offender, including uncles, aunts, and
cousins. Sometimes punished as well were
friends and work colleagues. One case
reported by Human Rights Watch was that of Kim Young. Kim was an official of the State Security
Bureau when they found that as a CIA spy thirty-six years earlier his father was
executed. They instantly sent Kim Young to prison, where he met his mother, who
since her husband’s execution had been imprisoned.
Brought out by former prisoners, and even escaped guards,
accounts of the prison camps, are harrowing. A 2003 report identified
thirty-six forced labor camps, one of which is three times larger than
Washington, D.C. is. There are reports
of forced abortions, babies being killed, people sent to the “Discipline
Department” for laughing or for looking at their reflection in a window, and
informers staying awake through the night to report on what prisoners say when
they talk in their sleep. A 1987 at
Onsung Prison, there was a riot that led to the killing of 5,000
prisoners. Up to nineteen hours, a day
prisoner’s work and the products made by their forced labor, including
clothing, and thought to be “laundered” through China were discovered on
shelves in the United States.
According to one
prisoner, working with livestock is a good job because it is possible to steal
the animals’ food and to pick through animal dung for undigested grain. On the prison cell walls are slogans such as
“adore the authorities of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il with all your heart”.
EXCESSES AND BIZARRE BEHAVIOR:
·
In honor of Kim Il-sung’s 70th birthday, North
Korea built a triumphal arch in Pyongyang that is a copy of the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris, but larger, and a Torch of Juche Idea monument made from 25,550 white
granite blocks, one for each day of Kim Il-sung’s life, that is one meter
higher than the Washington Monument.
·
Peeved by South Korea’s coup in hosting the 1988
Olympics, Kim Jong-il spent $4.3 billion to prepare for the Thirteenth World
Festival of Youth and Students held in Pyongyang in 1989. Large apartment buildings were built to house
visitors, but without the use of construction elevators, which led to the death
of more than 1,000 workers in three years.
·
In 1974, Kim Jong-il decided that North Korean
radio was not playing enough music. He
personally listened to thousands of songs and then chose 330 to be played on
air. Three years later, he added another
1,177 songs.
·
Kim Jong-il never gave a major speech or spoke
to a large crowd. Although the
government often stages mass rallies, at which up to one million North Koreans
will march in columns fifty abreast, Kim’s only known utterance at such an
event was at a 1992 military parade, when he called out, “Glory to the heroic
Korean People’s Army.”
·
Every room in every building must display
photographs of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and they distribute special kits to
clean the pictures.
·
Every North Korean must wear a lapel pin with a
photo of either Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il.
I cannot imagine a people whose rights have been trampled as
long the Korean have. I am sure one of my readers will tell me but for the sake
of this article, I am speaking of North Korea. What will happen to these people
now that the ring in their noses has loosened some?
With high ranking officials refusing to return from abroad
and Pyongyang refusing to let anyone leave, who will fight to give some relief
and bring change to this beleaguered country? Will it be the puppet on stage,
or the one who holds the strings behind the curtain? Only time will tell.
