Freedom In North Korea Essay

The United States has been experiencing high levels of contention in all aspects with North Korea since the 19th century. However, since then those relations have not subsided. Recently many felt North Korea’s test missiles and nukes have threatened the peace and safety of the community. As told so by the South Korean foreign ministry. This is one reason why Americans should care about the relations between the U.S and North Korea because, if North Korea is able to make their country powerful through the sourcing of manual labor, this is a prime example of the outcomes attainable if the United States and North Korea worked in unison with each other. Ultimately the Koreans and the United States will both be able to create a successful and powerful

In the book Northing to Envy, Barbara Demick describes North Korea as an undeveloped country. “You can see the evidence of what once was and has been lost…” (4,Demick) The North Koreas aren’t up to the modern world and still haven’t learned that all humans need rights to be happy. Many aspects of human rights are broken in North Korean society that affect the people negatively, making them feel violated.

North Korea’s economy is very different then the United States’ economy. Even though one dollar in American money doesn’t seem much to us Americans, it is worth nine-hundred dollars in their currency. North Korea’s main sources of income are military products, machine building, electrical power, chemicals, mining, metallurgy, textiles, food processing and tourism. North Korea’s overall condition of the economy is not good.

North Korea has been labeled as a mysterious state as the country is secluded from the rest of the world. The Democratic People 's Republic of Korea is a small country with a population of 25 million and is under a communist model of power. The country has been under control of the Kim dynasty since 1948, it began with Kim Il-Song and since then they have remained in power to this current day. The leaders are plastered all over the city of Pyongyang, with statues and murals on the wall and with the citizens wearing pins with the previous leaders to show their dedication to the regime. The city itself is a front to demonstrate a dynamic and advanced country. The regime has been successful for years, regardless of the fact that the government is repressive and the numerous violations of human rights. After the mismanagement of the famine crisis, which resulted in possibly millions of deaths. How is it possible for the regime to be still intact, especially when so many countries before them, have failed. The regime has successfully indoctrinated children at a young age through their education system, the barricading of information and their implanting of fear among the population.

(Helpline Law.) Article 75 of the Fundamental Right and Duties of Korean Citizens (FRDKC) clearly states, “ Citizens have freedom of residence and travel.” (Helpline Law.) (Delisle, Dascher.) But in order to leave the North of the Korean peninsula, you need special permission. That system of required permission was going on for a while, (Delisle, Dascher.) and strengthened after the Korean War, said to have killed about 4 million people. In 1971 North and South Korea were in discussion ways of letting the divided families, (as a result of side captures in the war) should be able to come see each other. (Helpline Law.) On this same ‘family topic’ Article 78 states, “ Marriage and family shall be protected by the state. The state pays great attention to consolidating the family, the basic unit of social life.” (Helpline Law.) Yet this isn’t even taken into consideration when trying to get the families back together?

The country of North Korea compares rather closely to the world in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Both nations of people are very closed off from the community and the outside world. The citizens only know about what the government officials want them to know about. In North Korea everyone depends upon and worships their leader, Kim Jong Il, almost as though he is their god. They all only depend on what they classify as “we” and they rely only on that because they do not have access to anyone else or even know what it means to be an individual. In both the book and North Korea, the citizens are locked down and watched with a careful eye. Breaking the rules in Anthem would send you to the Uncharted Forest, which is very similar to what happens to those

North Koreans are sent to these camps if they commit a crime against the government or if they are related to someone who has committed a crime against the government. In fact, if a North Korean commits a political crime, up to three generations of their family can be punished for it as well! Up to a total of 120,000 people, the population of Abilene, have been estimated to be held in these horrendous prison camps in which citizens suffer beatings, are forced to work, and deal with the fact that up to quarter of the prisoners die each year. Their own end is just around the corner. The mass deaths may be caused by the fact that prisoners are starved. Because of minimal food, prisoners who are left alive look like walking skeletons. Once, a prisoner who managed to escape their camp was hunted down, dragged back to camp while tied to a truck, and executed for his crime. North Korean officials deny that these brutal camps exist. If these testimonies are true, it’s clear as to why North Korea wouldn’t want the world to know about their camps. Terrible actions comparable to Nazi concentration camps happen in brutal North Korean prison

Laws in North Korea declare, “It […] illegal for the North Korean people to leave their country without the regime’s permission, and the regime attempts to restrict the people’s movement even inside their own

The citizens of North Korea have little if any rights. They are not allowed to speak their opinions especially about the government. If they speak ill of the government they will be killed. As well as no freedom of speech nearly all property belongs to the state. A modern independent judicial system does not exist due to the ways their dictatorship is ruled. They have no Religious freedom at all, they must practice the religion that their dictator says.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, has always had a history of imprisoning people that disagree with the governments policies, or for “disrespecting” the countries leaders, but these prisons are not just any prisons, they are prison camps, which function similarly to Nazi Concentration Camps.

The government claims that citizens get the full amount of basic rights and claim that DPRK has the best rights in the world ( Federal Research Division, 172-175). Contrary to what they said, the DPRK is one of the most repressive governments on the face of the earth. Their constitution claims that they get freedom of religion, speech, press, and more ( 175-176). The North Korean government instead ignores every single word in their own constitution (United Nations Human Rights Council 3). The Supreme People’s Assembly meets only once a year ( Federal Research Division, 175-176). The current state of modern North Korea is based off the policy of aggression, fear, and governmental brainwashing. (Daily Mail Reporter). North Korean citizens can and will be placed in a labor camp if they do anything that goes against the regime (“North Korea”). Not only can North Korean citizens get placed in a labor camp for going against the regime, but foreigners can and will be placed in a labor camp for committing that crime, too (David Brunnstrom). In the North, the government boasts about many of their so-called achievements and superiority over the others. Their media constantly shows how plentiful and how powerful the country is (“Kim Jong Un's New Year Address”). Videos and images of industry, food, technology, and stocked stores picture the country as a perfect

Kim Jong Un’s iron fist extends to all domains of the North Korean life. In the digital realm, the restricted intranet serves as a propaganda echo chamber, where only a select few get access to the universal internet that we all use all use every day, however most of these individuals are merely part of a hacking elite look for expanding the military capabilities on North Korea via the digital battlefront. In the social world, a citizen's social class will determine their fate through their education and job opportunities, ensuring only the most loyal of citizens will be able to sustain a well providing job, but no matter what job is at stake, it all must serve the wishes of the Kim Regime. The power of the Kim Regime extends outwards into dozens of outside countries, where laborers are forced to work indefinitely in cruel conditions, however recent moves by the Trump administration may put change North Korea’s ability to exploit the labor. In addition to immense human rights violations of the state-sponsored labor, nothing quite compares to the Nazi-esque labor camps where any citizen will get sent to if they for even the most minor of criticisms of the government. Finally, North Korea continuously creates

Understanding how North Korea as a country defines itself in a changing world. Where do they derive their customs and practices, political standings and military power? Define North Korea’s history leading into the modern age and define its culture and characteristics and how they interact with the world today. Understanding a subject as broad as the term culture begins where the culture began with the birth of civilization and the people that influenced it. There are many factors that play a role in the shaping of a nation none so much as turmoil and conflict and the Korean peninsula saw its fair share for the better part of a millennia. A complete statistical breakdown of North Korea shows a struggling nation that strongly depends on

North Korean citizens are the most oppressed people in the world. The people there have no basic radio communications, they are blocked from most internet and television and most foreign journalists are not allowed in the country. The government is also technically not a communist country, it is in fact a

State media sources are tightly controlled so as to prevent the North Korean public from accessing any information that does not come from the country's strict government bureau of information, and this means that many North Koreans are grossly misinformed about the position of North Korea in the world and believe, for example, that their meagre lifestyles are preferable to the terrible conditions in other countries. Visitors to North Korea routinely report tight levels of control, with mobile phones confiscated for the duration of the visit and all movement tracked by an official government-supplied 'tourist guide'.