The North Korean case

Oct 6, 2007 09:14 GMT  ·  By
Apotheotic image of the "beloved leader". He is above all Korea and Koreans
2 photos
   Apotheotic image of the "beloved leader". He is above all Korea and Koreans

Korea is an ancient nation, a unification of the limits of the peninsula bearing the same name during the 7th century and inhabited by an ethnic group that linguists tend to say is Tungus (thus is somehow related to Mongols). As an unified kingdom, it always had to face the Chinese domination, but developed a rich culture and its own pacific politics till the 10th century, when a continuous state of war and invasions began to dominate the Korean history, culminating with the Japanese invasion in 1910, which annexed it to its empire and tried to impose its culture.

The Japanese domination lasted till 1945, when US troops landed in the south of the peninsula and started advancing towards the north. USSR wanted to take its share of the loot: it declared war on Japan and from the north invaded Korea towards the south. To avoid border incidents, the Russians and the Americans stopped their operations when they arrived at the 38th parallel.

The military delimitation gave rise to the two present-day states: North Korea, 120,500 square km and 23 million inhabitants, and South Korea, 98,800 square km and 48 million inhabitants.

In 1950, elated by Mao's victory in China and expecting an US neutrality, North-Korea attacked the south. Kim Il-Sung was at the point of achieving his goal when McArthur planned the Inchon landing, close to Seul, to take by surprise the North Koreans by rearguard. The operation was successful, and in a few weeks, the South Korean, American and ONU troops recovered the loss, occupied all the north and reached the Chinese frontier.

But Mao intervened and by the end of 1950, the allied troops were overwhelmed and the Chinese troops entered the south. After tough fights, both forces stabilized their positions on the line where hostilities had started : the 38th parallel. That remained as an armistice border. In three years of war, over three million people died and hatred is still felt by the Northerners and the Southerners as well as an international tension that at a moment seemed to turn into the WW III.

General McArthur had proposed to president Truman the launching of 30-50 atomic bombs over China, a fact rejected by the president, who fired McArthur. A peace without winners was the solution, over a precarious border: the 38th parallel, a stretch of land 243 km (150 mi) long and 3.2 km (2 mi) wide.

Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, aged 82, after achieving the record for the world's longest-lived dictatorship: 49 years. He was a skilled, cunning, though man, endowed with great inspiration (as it is said) that 'launched' him to versification, like his friend Mao Zedong. Today his monument, 20 m (66 ft) tall, shines like an amber of light in Pyongyang, reduced to obscurity by the lack of power. By its side, the north Korean students read their courses, as the lack of power impedes them from doing it indoors.

Kim Il Sung (by his real name Kim Song Ju) was born in 1912 and took refuge in Manchuria together with his family in 1920, after the Japanese invasion. He studied in China and at the age of 15 he was detained for membership to the Juvenile Communist League. Freed in 1930, Kim founded a guerilla group, the Korean Revolutionary Army, that joined the Chinese guerillas in fighting against the Japanese presence in Manchuria. By 1941, Kim entered the army and kept on harassing the Japanese troops. It was then when he decided to change his name (Kim Il Sung was a legendary Korean soldier) and marched to USSR due to an advance of the Japanese army.

After the foundation of the Popular Republic of Korea, he turned into a terrible dictator, but even the most terrible dictators have unsuspected weaknesses, and instead of imitating China leaving the power to the party or any intimate collaborator, he converted his dictatorship into a hereditary one, leaving the power to his son Kim Jong Il, author of such ingenious phrases like "Sun of the nation" when referring to his father. The 65 years old president, auto-denominated "beloved leader", is not so skilful with words, as his largest and most convincing phrase till now has been "Long live our mighty army..."

In one of the rare cases when journalists coming from the West entered the country with a Nepalese medical team, operating cataracts, people were seen thanking the "beloved leader" and "the sun of the nation", (not the medical team) whose portraits are found everywhere, along with prolonged tears and prayers...

Even if he was born in USSR, the North Korean children learn that his place of birth was a sacred mountain under the rainbow, amongst other wonders. Officially, he is the best Korean composer, the most talented architect, the best strategist (even if he was expelled from a military academy in East Germany), even if his real addictions have something to do with the cult of personality (all North Koreans must wear his effigy in an insignia on the lapel), the alcohol and the northern blond women...

The Korean type of cult of personality was grossly imported by other dictators, too, like Ceausescu during the communist Romania.

More mysterious and isolated than his father, he has promoted Maoist plans, like the Great Jump Forward, programs that in China caused 30 million deaths and in Korea the number is still unknown, but the hunger affecting the country for years is impressive. He seems depicted from surrealist novels, but those who talked to him say he can tell fiction from reality. As far as the issue of the nuclear menace is concerned, it is hard to say on which side he is.

In 2000, the visit to Pyongyang of South Korean president Kim Dae Jong seemed to open a chapter of cooperation between the two countries. The main issue was to put to an end to the horrible situation of 7 million Koreans affected by the familial rupture following the 1945 partition. South Korea wanted to have more access to crossing the border, the North was interested in food supply and economic interchanges. But the extremely slow advances do not create a peace clime between the two countries necessary to reduce the military forces, of one million in each country, a fact that costs south Korea 10 % of its national product. This would also mean the retirement of 37,140 American troops, not very popular in the country.

The crisis got worse when after 9/11 event, North Korea was put in 'the Axe of the Evil'. This country may not train terrorists and does not finance them, but its militarism and resistance against any nuclear inspection led to this. Moreover, the country sells Scud missiles, that can carry a tonne of explosive to a distance of 550 km (395 mi). The North Korean industry also produces the Nodong rocket, with a ray of action of 1,300 km (820 mi), able to reach Japan (one did it accidentally, as they say, in 1999) and the North Korean researchers develop the Taepo Dong I and II models, with a range of 2,000 to 6,000 km (1,250 to 3,750 mi). By 2013, they could have devices of long range, able to bombard American territory.

Things got worse when in December 2002, North Korea expelled the inspectors of the International Agency of the Atomic Energy, charged with watching the fulfilment of the agreements signed between US and North Korea in 1994. North Korea started to develop its nuclear industry in 1960 and now the country has an entire technology of building atomic bombs. It could have more than two and could fabric 30 annually. North Korea also has great potential to create bacteriological and chemical weapons.

In 1997/1998, a severe hunger wiped out the country. Two years of torrential rainfall and one of drought imposed to North Korean people a ration of rice, the basic aliment of the country, of 100 g daily, about 20 % of the necessary for a frugal diet. The population was already weakened as by the end of 1996, people were living on a rice ration of less than 400 g.

By the end of 1997, the German Red Cross, whose members had traveled for weeks through the country, signalled that the infantile mortality had gone beyond 40 % and at least 800,000 children suffered from chronic malnutrition. World Vision found that 15 % of the population in the villages neighboring China had perished in 10 months. This would mean over one million dead people in the whole country.

The situation improved in the following years, due to an international help of one billion Euro ($ 1.41 billion) annually. But even so, things got eventually worse: North Korea did not manage to be self-sufficient and its "benefactors" were not willing to offer unlimited help, without controlling it and without a trade-off. US delivered 250,000 tonnes of cereals annually, but in 2002 gave just 155,000, and in the current situation there's none. The introduction of North Korea in the Axe of the Evil stopped the programs of humanitarian help and oil supply.

Japan (which donated 500,000 tonnes of cereals annually) and UE (with 100,000) also ceased to help. Who is willing to help a dictatorial regime, characterized by militarism and violating the human rights, which uses the donations to maintain an impressive army of over 1 million men (the fourth in the world), always involved in incidents with the South Koreans?

North Korea is a country annihilated by hunger, poverty, tremendous underdevelopment and one of the toughest dictatorships of the Stalinist type which stands in the world, but a very important menace for its capitalist neighbors, South Korea and Japan.

In Northeastern China, Chinese men buy wives from North Korea, like cattle. Between 1997 and 2001, around 30,000 Korean women were sold in China. Trade is spurred by the misery of the communist state, in which about 3 million people died of hunger in the '90s.

Since 1997, 300,000 Korean have fled to China. Life in North Korea means obsession for the next meal, entire families in search for food, dead people on the streets or inside the houses, common graves, abandoned cities, children that do not develop and even cannibalism. Hunger dominates all social classes, except those faithful to the Communist Party and the Army personnel.

Over 50 % of the refugees are women. To escape their desperate situation, many marry a Chinese man. Others are prey for organized armed Chinese Mafia bands or simple amateurs, being sold to bars, karaoke clubs, but especially Chinese men facing trouble in encountering women: farmers, elders, mutilated or diseased ones. 30 % of the Korean women crossing the border will be sold.

The women "hunters" even go to North Korea in search for desperate victims, who can even be kidnapped. In China a Korean woman costs $ 340-1700 (240-1,200 Euro). Beauty, age, virginity, physical appearance and health are criteria for establishing the price.

For a Chinese farmer, a Korean woman 'costs' him the work over a year, but she is the ideal wife: working and submissive. In some cases, a woman can be sold several times, up to six. If the husband wants to get rid of the wife, under the menace of denunciating her to the Police, he resells her. The Koreans who get caught, delivered back to North Korea, face a not so bright future: working camps, the "ideological wash" and classification of the entire family as contra-revolutionary. Occasionally, even execution.

Many of these women try to start a new life, but they carry the burden of being bought. And the Chinese husband can remind her of this continuously. Some have left behind families and hear news about their children being dead because of hunger in North Korea.

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