Understanding the Dismal Life in North Korea
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For time immemorial, North Korea has been one of the world’s most tight-lipped nations in the world. It is one of the last few countries still under communist rule. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) formally established in 1948 amid the chaos that had ensued after the end of the Second World War. Its history is dominated by its supreme leader and first president, Kim Il-sung, also known for having shaped its global political affairs for nearly five decades.
For time immemorial, North Korea has been one of the world’s most tight-lipped nations in the world. It is one of the last few countries still under communist rule. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) formally established in 1948 amid the chaos that had ensued after the end of the Second World War. Its history is dominated by its supreme leader and first president, Kim Il-sung, also known for having shaped its global political affairs for nearly five decades.
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A dragon out of its slumber
Kim Il-sung instituted his very own personal philosophy of Juche (self-reliance). After the Korean War, North Korea’s development and perceived prosperity adopted this as a beacon of light. Kim Il-sung passed away in 1994, succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-Il, the status of president “eternally” assigned to him. Decades of following his philosophy and the unyielding state-run system have led to rampant corruption and economic stagnation.
Kim Jong-Il appears to be just like his father and the people that live in North Korea barely have enough food to eat.
Various global aid and welfare organizations have estimated that over two million North Koreans have died since the 1990s due to severe food shortages, mostly due to economic stagnation. The country depends heavily on foreign-funded aid programs, mainly from China, to feed the millions of starving people. A purely tentative reach-out program to the world introduced in 1998 was an attempt to soften North Korea’s totalitarian image. This seemed to last only minutes.
Known as “the sunshine policy”, it met much resistance and its final blow came in 2002, when Pyongyang decided to reactivate one of its defunct nuclear reactors and, at the same time, ban international inspectors. Life expectancy in North Korea has also seen no improvement in over 25 years, which says a lot about a country’s development as well as the situation of its people.
A criminal country
Hacking and other computer crimes are some of the charges levied against North Korea. They allegedly hacked into Sony’s network to which Sony responded by not releasing a movie that poked fun at North Korea’s ridiculous leader Kim Jong-Il. This movie’s release date was at the end of 2014.
Human rights are folklore
North Korea, with its totalitarian-type administration, on numerous occasions, allegedly violates many human rights policies. Frequent reports of acts such as slave labor, brutal torture, executions and even mandated abortion and infanticide in prisons keep emerging. Amnesty International, the human rights non-government organization (NGO), estimates prisons hold thousands of North Koreans where both torture and executions are commonplace.
The number of people defecting from the DPRK has also long been an indicator of the dismal state of affairs in the country. This has been more so with gradual militarization of the country, to such an extent that it boasts of one of the largest standing armed forces in the world. North Korea’s military capabilities and hardcore nuclear ambitions have further aggravated its self-maintained isolation from the rest of the world. In an October 2006 report, North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon.
A troublesome situation
Concern spread throughout the region over the possibility of an invasion by a nuclear-armed force. North Korean soldiers, to this day, still keep watch over the Demilitarized Zone between North and South on a twenty-four hour basis. However, quality and standards of training, discipline, and even equipment reportedly are poor.
Some Americans believe that America should pull out of South Korea because it should be defending other countries for financial and other reasons. There are military leaders in America who believe North Korea should be provoked or attacked which would result in some intense fighting. Their logic shows that a quick rout would end the situation and millions of North Koreans could experience freedom for the first time.
