Why I’m personally so skeptical of the whole Korean peace treaty thing (loooong post)
It’s awesome that the war between North and South Korea is over. It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. It really is, I’m not being sarcastic or passive aggressive or anything. It’s a very, very good thing, and it’s a huge step in the right direction.
But here’s the thing (tl;dr is at the very bottom, and I know it’s very, very long, but I beg that you try to read the entire post. Due to the huge length and disturbing nature of the post, please keep reading under the cut):
(North Korea, for maybe a year and a half now, has been one of my BIGGEST special interests that has to do with the real world. I’ve researched it’s history, it’s past, it’s probable futures, I’ve seen many, many documentaries on it, I’ve watched footage, I’ve seen photos, I’ve heard conversations and interviews with North Korean escapees (usually referred to as “defectors”, though I’m not sure how people feel about this term so I will be using “escapees”), pretty much anything related to North Korea that I see, I will look into and research. This doesn’t make me an expert, obviously, but I know a basic thing or two about the country and it’s government.)
People already know how the country is. People know Kim Jong-un, people know Kim Jong-il, people know Kim Il-sung (hopefully), people know the country has propaganda. It’s pretty basic knowledge that’s passed around, even when we’re kids. And up until i was about 13, I thought the claims about North Korea being so awful were just racist lies, straight up. I assumed people were saying bad things about the country because it’s an Asian country, and growing up, a lot of (pretty shitty) people in my life just made fun of Asian countries for being “overly strict” and “un-free”, things like that.
You have my word that none of this post is coming from a place of resentment, fear, hate, etc for Asian countries or people, whatsoever. With my plans to someday move to Osaka, that would be an odd thing for me to feel.
The thing is, I started hearing more and more about the country over the years. From trusted people, people I was close with, people I knew couldn’t have racial bias no matter the circumstance. And that’s what intrigued me. Was the country as bad as people rumored to me? Was it that scary and horrible?
Research, studying, documentary binging and conversations ensued.
And, short answer: Yes. It’s much, much, much worse than I ever could have imagined. It’s worse than people ever seem to let onto. So much worse.
Long answer? My personal, in-depth, full answer would take hours to get through. Hours of horrific images, terrifying videos captured within the country, sickening interviews with escapees, and hundreds upon hundreds of articles, snippets, quotes, stories from survivors, book excerpts, etc… Instead, I’ll give you my “shortened-for-the-sake-of-an-important-informational-tumblr-post” explanation.
Lately, due to recent events, I’ve been hearing conversations and statements that upset me deeply. I have friends and family who are now romanticizing North Korea, who see this peace treaty as “the apology that saved the country and proved that Kim Jong-Un wasn’t evil”.
Let me take a long moment to explain why this is a horrible, horrible thing to take out of this historical event.
A very simplified and short history lesson (with the most accuracy I can give from a studying perspective): North and South Korea were, as most everybody knows, considered the exact same country. There wasn’t really segregation between the two areas, it was all just “Korea”. In 1945, when the US and the Soviet Union both agreed to share control of the Korean peninsula post-war, US military officers made a line to divide the US and Soviet Union’s occupation zones.
This is, roughly, what we know as the North Korean and South Korean border, today, where the “Korean Demilitarized Zone” is. The original country segregation was meant to be temporary, but a certain war *cough cough cold war cough* changed the plans. The US and the Soviet Union placed leaders in Korea on each new side that were… A bit bias to their own cultural and personal beliefs and goals. Elections in Korea that were supposed to allow a leader to be chosen for the entire peninsula weren’t working as planned, due to trust problems between the two sides. The US assigned Syngman Rhee to the south, and the Soviet Union assigned the infamous Kim Il-sung to their own north.
In 1948, around the exact same time (months/days apart), the leaders on both sides claimed that they had control over Korea entirely. Which, obviously, clashed quickly with each other. Less than two years later, this launched the start of the Korean War, initiated by Kim Il-sung. Since 1953, North Korea had started progressing into becoming a Stalinist state. This is when North Korea began to really sink.
This began to arise in North Korea back in 1953, and is still in place in modern North Korea. This system sorts the country into different social classes, and depending on a citizen’s social class, their entire life and, most likely, their entire family’s lives, would be defined solely on their classification. Your social class in North Korea tells you what jobs you are allowed to have, which schools your children can attend, and even as far as where you may live in the country. The government wouldn’t tolerate anyone who disagreed or refused to follow this system, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to death.
If you are to be arrested in North Korea, up to three entire generations of your family can be sent to a political prison camp, without doing a single thing wrong, or even against the law. If you make a mistake, your family will suffer as much as you do.
Children are taught young to inform authorities of any crimes, rule-breaking, etc, no matter how minor, done by strangers, neighbors, friends, family, tourists, etc, so they may be properly punished. This often can affect the child as well, as if their family or acquaintance gets punished for a crime, they can easily get beaten, taken, or worse, themselves, even if they were the ones reporting the “crime”.
Kim Il-sung ran the country into the ground with his beliefs and policies. Laws and rules he’d set in place made daily life and business an immense challenge, some agricultural policies, mixed with terrible management of the nature in their country, caused necessary farming to slow down incredibly, as well as gave citizens and towns much, much less defense against natural disasters and extreme weather. North Korea had also began it’s descent into famine, with hardly enough food to get the country by, and the country lost it’s supporting allies. Then, he died, in 1994. Oh, and before he died, Kim Il-sung declared that nobody beside him could be president. He is, to this day, the country’s eternal president, even after death. While the country will continue to have new leaders in power, none of them are referred to as “president”. Kim Il-sung is also highly worshiped, more than your average Christian worships Jesus, and North Korean years were even changed so that the beginning of time would, seemingly, begin at Kim Il-sung’s birth, and his birthday is still the biggest holiday in the country today. This portrait of him is found all over the country, and is required to be displayed in every single North Korean household:
Kim Jong-il, son of Kim il-sung, took control when his father died. Kim Jong-il set in place the policy that military is more important than the general population, and took this to high extremes. This only made things worse for the citizens. The true North Korean famine began when Kim Jong-il took leadership, hitting it’s peak in the late 90′s, and an estimation of up to one million North Korean citizens died due to it. Most citizens who survived had still suffered through, borderline- if not already- starving. Child starvation during this time even impacted the growth of an ENTIRE NORTH KOREAN GENERATION, to the point in which the soldier’s height limit was decreased specifically for this, because it got to the point where 4′9 was too tall for the average 16-17 year old North Korean teenager. Citizens of the country, even though mostly not liking this leader, are still required by law to worship him. Similar to Kim Il-sung, this picture is found all over the country, and is, again, required in every North Korean household:
Kim Jong-un; The only (legally “suitable”) son of Kim Jong-il, took leadership after his father’s death in 2011. So far, things have not gotten better. At all (aside from the new peace treaty). In fact, as can be found in this (incredibly recommended by me) North Korea documentary (also linked at the end), a lot of North Korean citizens, who were forced to build a long track allegedly by hand under Jong-un’s orders, were recorded briefly complaining about the man himself, which is something much harder to find in relation to Kim Jong-il, and something you will most likely NEVER hear about Kim Il-sung. Praising, serving, and still very much worshiping Kim Jong-un seems to be only out of fear of him, and not for any actual love or respect of him. He is the first North Korean leader known to be hated almost just as much by North Koreans as the outside world hates him. North Korean escapees have even said that Kim Jong-un shows much more propaganda than both previous leaders had, and that before escaping the country, little was known about him at all, even by the citizens within the country. He has been taking extreme steps to ensure that nothing and nobody comes in or goes out without his order. This has reduced the number of escapees making it to South Korea by nearly half. He is just as dangerous and untrustworthy, if not even more so, than his preceding family members in power. Kim Jong-un is still the leader today, and we have yet to see where the recent peace treaty will truly lead. If you somehow haven’t seen him, here’s his picture:
As talked about earlier in the post, North Korea had a terrible famine, starting from around the 1980′s, and peeking in the late 1990′s. A particularly interesting story that helped me to imagine this crisis better was from a North Korean doctor and escapee, and her point of view through the famine. She stated that after escaping the country to China, she’d found a pet bowl with food, left outside for a dog. Inside the bowl was white rice and nicely-sized chunks of meat. After noticing this, she concluded in her words, that “dogs in china ate better than doctors in North Korea”. Keep in mind, this particular HUGE famine that wouldn’t be too out of place in the late 1800′s or early 1900′s, or even earlier, hit it’s highest peek only 23-27 years ago. (I pondered on the thought to add photos taken of average citizens and children during the famine, but I’d like to keep this post free from too many sickening visuals. You can find these sorts of things in the documentaries and sites that I’ve linked at the bottom of the post.)
North Korea’s government controls everything in the country. Seriously, everything.
Everything. All the time.
They don’t want any outside media or content coming into the country, and they don’t want any of theirs coming out, because they know what the reactions will be. As soon as outside media comes into the country, they know it’ll inspire their citizens. It’ll introduce them to topics, themes and concepts that they don’t want their citizens to know exist.
Instead, they create their own media, and that is all their people are allowed, legally, to see. North Korean cartoons, North Korean news channels, North Korean movies, North Korean music, North Korean video games, North Korean websites (though most North Koreans have little to no access to a computer, let alone internet, aside from the military), etc. North Korean media is created specifically for the purpose of brainwashing, and taking a look at these pieces of media, it’s plainly obvious what the messages are, and why they exist.
Two prime examples of North Korean children’s cartoons, made specifically as propaganda pieces for young kids (supposed to be for young kids. These shows hold very mature and sometimes highly disturbing imagery and topics, and very messed up morals, please view carefully):
Review of “Squirrel and Hedgehog”, a very popular and beloved “Children’s” show in North Korea (Caution: Show features guns, violence, death, torture, xenophobia, cursing, racism, and more)
Review of “Simba the King Lion”, a very blatant rip-off of the Lion King, made by the same people as the previous cartoon series. (Caution: Show features violence, death, torture, underage drinking, cursing, and more.)
To view media made outside North Korea, which is VERY illegal there, it has to be smuggled into the country, on a flash-drive, or on a physical CD. These are things like news recordings, K-Dramas, cartoons, and popular movies. Without those brave enough to smuggle media in and out of the country, North Koreans would be completely without any outside input, since North Korean media is fabricated, manufactured, and altered incredibly to make their country look like heaven, and to make the outside world look evil, awful, and disgusting (this ideology is promoted highly in “Squirrel and Hedgehog”).
As of 2017, American tourism in North Korea is banned, due to how many western tourists are held hostage for political advantage, or worse. It’s been deemed too dangerous and risky.
When touring North Korea as a foreigner, you must first fly to Hong Kong. This is the only way to get in and out of the country as a tourist. Before entering the country, all tourists have to sign a contract in Hong Kong, stating that they won’t speak of or share any photos or videos of anything negative within the country. You can’t enter without singing this contract. This is elaborated on in this indie film, in which a 20 year old youtuber traveled to North Korea specifically to sneak back photos and information on the truths about North Korea to the rest of the world.
As he explains, since the contract is only valid in Hong Kong and North Korea, he was relatively safe to post the information, photos, recordings, etc online. However, there is talk of the possibility that you risk your life when posting negatively about North Korea online, as I’m doing now, because you risk the chance of being hunted down and killed by a North Korean officer, in your own country. Personally, I have only heard this a few times, and don’t know of any proof to support this, but I definitely wouldn’t doubt it. If anyone does have proof of this, however, or a source of some kind, please link them.
This fear tactic for propaganda seems to work well, as even National Geographic has posted a one-sided video of North Korea, only really showing it’s beauty, happy sights, fun times, etc, without any of the bad. The same happens with many youtubers and bloggers who have visited North Korea.
My heart goes out to all of the people trapped in North Korea. My heart and blessings go out to all of the foreign prisoners, the Japanese abductees, all of the native people suffering and starving, everyone in the country who is being wrongfully harmed and punished for nothing at all.
The citizens of North Korea are just like us. They’re creative, they’re strong, they’re intelligent, they’re kind, they’re talented… They want freedom, like any human being, and they have less than almost any other country on this planet. The only thing holding them back is their leader and government.
No freedom of speech, no access to information (aside from what is taught at their schools, which mainly focus on the fake histories of their leaders and their made-up amazing feats, and encouraging children to become cold-blooded soldiers out of love and loyalty to their “perfect country”),
North Korea and South Korea have ended their war. This is an amazing move forward, and it does bring hope and positivity to the table, for North Koreans, for South Koreans, for the US, for everybody.
But this is not the time to give North Korea praise.
This is not the time to romanticize North Korea for “reforming”.
This is especially not the time to be forgiving Kim Jong-un and the generations that lead before him. Especially since, well, none of them should never be forgiven.
North Korean children are still dying. North Korean adults are still dying. From starvation, harsh weather conditions, lack of freedom, ridiculous laws, evil punishments, and just from trying to run away. North Korea’s leader and government do not deserve praise for anything more than what they have already done. Paperwork and a handshake.
With North Korea’s history of lies, propaganda, and nearly everything being fabricated and staged to both the outside world and their own citizens, to me, it’s hard to tell whether this peace treaty will truly go in the right direction. While this would be a difficult thing to stage and fabricate, of course, there’s always the possibility. Personally, I believe it’s a very 50/50 possibility.
I could have included much more info in this post, but it was getting much, much too long as it is, and I’ll leave the rest up to your own research and the links I’ve included.
Stay angry and extremely skeptical+scared of North Korean’s government and leader, but stay supportive and encouraging of North Korean citizens who haven’t done anything wrong. Don’t forget about how truly fucked up North Korea and its propaganda really is, and how it’s literally killing their innocent people, including the children, especially all the homeless, starving, injured/sick and parent-less children on the streets of North Korea, which there is a grossly high number of. The peace treaty could be a step towards North Korea fixing their issues, but it will take a long time, and a bit of a miracle for Kim Jong-un to suddenly “become a good guy” out of nowhere like this.
Most importantly, just stay educated. Stay informed about the country, and please don’t ever forget about everyone suffering in the country right now (aka, almost every single person living there/being held prisoner there). And please do what you can to help North Korean escapees.
(A bit of an only slightly related note: Yes, the way North Korea functions counts as a form of communism, but this doesn’t mean all forms of communism are like this, at all, It’s all personal beliefs. The fact that they are a communist country that does horrible things doesn’t make all communists horrible and evil. If me, a type of communist, can make this post against North Korea’s government, that should say enough about that.)
(These are things I used for this post alone, and not everything I’ve used to learn about the country over time)
Report on a large number of American prisoners in North Korea who were on a time limit before certain death
Review of “Squirrel and Hedgehog”, a very popular and beloved “Children’s” show in North Korea (Caution: Show features guns, violence, death, torture, xenophobia, cursing, racism, and more)
Review of “Simba the King Lion”, a very blatant rip-off of the Lion King, made by the same people as the previous cartoon series. (Caution: Show features violence, death, torture, underage drinking, cursing, and more.)
“Liberty in North Korea”, website dedicated to raising awareness of North Korea’s serious problems, and information on how to help. They also have donations and fundraisers to help escapees. Please donate to them if you can!
More basic North Korean history
Incredible Indie film that a young youtuber made after touring North Korea to bring back more evidence of it’s many faults and major problems (he does seem to try and add a bit of an unnecessarily dramatic and suspenseful overtone to the video that may bother some people for feeling ‘forced’, but I can’t blame him, it’s really dark stuff, also contains very disturbing, graphic and just plain sickening imagery and stories, view with caution)
Brutally real documentary about North Korea (again, contains very disturbing, graphic and just plain sickening imagery and stories, view with caution)
Interview with North Korean escapees about North Korea
National Geographic’s tour video in compliance with the propaganda contract they’d signed, a video touring North Korea’s ski resort, only speaking of the good and fun things related to North Korea and leaving out the bad. (Of course, also only being shown the staged touring path by their required guides)
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