The Role Of Totalitarianism In North Korea

Through this book Demick establishes her deep knowledge of North Korea all the while following the lives of six defectors as they fought to survive. Demick shows us the struggle that these North Koreans face as their country is consumed by an economic crisis and a famine that killed one fifth of their population, while it also gave us a glimpse at what we never think of when we hear about this country. The collapse of North Korea’s economy caused factories to close and other jobs to be terminated. This led the citizens of North Korea to lose their only source of income and forced to find other means to support their families. It caused them to make sacrifices in order support their families and essentially learn to become selfish, to turn a blind eye to the ones around who were also suffering in order for themselves to survive.

The world is not a perfect place. It is filled with disease, poverty, war, and corruption. The amount that these aspects take over the everyday lives of citizens is what separates corrupt states from non-corrupt states. North Korea is one of the most corrupt nations in the world falling behind only Somalia. The transfer of power in the nation to Kim Jung-un following the death of his father, Kim Jung-il, has resulted in no cure for this corruption and more so even worse circumstances. This unbelievable corruption in North Korea under the Kim Jung-un regime is able to persist because of the characteristics of the nation’s rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets where it is ultimately a part of the fabric of

In 2000, South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met for inter- Korean summit. (Jung, Kim Dae) “7.4 Jointment Statement” of 1972 pledged that Korea would work for peaceful reunification. (Korean unification: a new kind of peacebuilding project: Professor Myoung-Kyu Park is the current director of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University) Such peaceful reunification would have to follow North Korea’s collapse and its absorption to South Korea. It is difficult to predict when North Korea would collapse, but economic and social problems arising within North Korea provides reasons that collapse is a possible scenario. (Bennett, Bruce W) North Korea is collapsing economically due to crop failures. According to the U.N. Food program, North Korean food stocks are critically low and distribution system is malfunctioning. (Leitich, Keith A) Historically, North Korea has been more industrialized than the South. However, in the 1970s, South Korea’s GDP increased and in 2011, ROK’s GDP grew up to about $31,700, while North Korea’s was about $1,800. As the economy is malfunctioning, North Koreans’ strong belief of Kim family and the government is also collapsing. Despite of North Korea’s effort to prevent citizens from outside informations, people are being exposed to the informations through North Korean defectors and smuggled South Korean dvds. More people are willing to escape from the country as North Korean defectors to South in 2016 increased by 10.9% compared to the previous year. Moreover, as food is in short supply in N. Korea, military is also weakening making it less likely for N. Korea to be able to start a war. (Bennett, Bruce

The Democratic System is embraced by a host of countries, and the system is generally regarded as fair and stable in most examples of it being used in politics. The ideal democratic system has many traits, which include; free and fair elections, accountable executives, just and equitable legal systems, and representative parliaments. North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is one of two countries situated on the Korean Peninsula. The country was formed after the Second World War, where the formerly Japanese-occupied peninsula was divided along the 38th Parallel. The North was backed primarily by Russian interests, and the South chose to confide in the United States. After the Korean War (1950-53), instigated by the North, the two countries signed an armistice, but no official peace treaties. The North frequently feuds with the South, with aggression at an all-time high in recent years. The government of North Korea is a one-man state dictatorship, which has been controlled by the Kim family since the country’s founding.

He knows a starving populace is a weak one, and uses this to his advantage. Usually when 41% of a nation’s population is undernourished[2], the masses rebel against their leaders in search of a better system, but this is not the case with North Korea. The authoritarian government has, through decades of propaganda, convinced the public that starvation is the least of their worries, which allows the regime to focus on improving their military strength rather than improving the livelihood of their citizens. For an authoritarian dictator, military might is everything, and the people’s happiness is nothing, no matter what their propaganda posters might tell

Kim Jong Un is the the 29-year-old ruler of North Korea, one of the most distinctive and unpredictable countries in the world. It is a cocktail of poisonous elements: autocratic, repressive, isolated and poor (Powell).Its regime is dangerous not only to its people but also to the rest of the world. Its actions have had an unsettling impact on international relations in northeast Asia, particularly its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and its shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, all of which led to tensions between China and the united States (Ahn). North Korea’s present and future, therefore, are of global concern (Powell). North Korea is "a

North Korea a country which was richer than its South Korean counterpart provided better services to its citizens fell in decay. A once former recipient of vital Soviet economic aid had now seen its former ally wither away and with that the aid was cut. The loss of Soviet Aid had hurt the North Korean food supply production, and natural disasters had made it even worse. The current crises ultimately lead Kim Jong Il to focus on a military first policy in which the armed forces would receive the first supply of food, products, and health services. The policy was a disaster for ordinary civilians who were dying at a rapid rate, statistics put the death toll around 300,000 to 3 million. To the surviving this led to forced cannibalism as there was no other option. Western governments were reluctant on providing aid to a dictatorship and North Korea’s former allies were in no mood to

For decades, the North Korean government has prioritized military expenditures over the needs of civilians. Currently, the North Korean government primary focus is building a nuclear weapon program. Kim Jong-un’s 2017 new year's address, “focused on building a nuclear missile capable of reaching the United States” (Pasick, 2017). This has been the regime's goal since 2011; however, two nuclear tests conducted in 2016 revealed the progress and capabilities the program has reached. While the program may be advancing, the quality of life for North Korean civilians continues to regress.

Specifically, the country has fought against the Chinese, Russians, and Japanese. In 1945, at the end of World War II, North Korea allied with China while South Korea allied with the United States of America. The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 and eventually, a stalemate occurred where neither force could advance. The creation of the 38th Parallel resulted in a military demarcation line and the northern limit line separating the two countries. Ultimately, on 27 July 1953, those involved signed the Korean Armistice, halting any military provocation but not ending the war. The country remains isolated and their only real ally currently is China. Meanwhile, over the years the United States and South Korea have continued to perform semi-annual joint exercises together in preparation for possible North Korean military aggression. This has stirred controversy as the hermit kingdom views these actions as threatening to the regime’s existence. For this reason, North Korea has initiated provocations within the peninsula by firing intercontinental ballistic missiles near Guam and over Japan, into the Pacific Ocean. In response to these provocations, United Nations members voted to go through with sanctions that greatly crippled North Korea from receiving outside

Do to the isolationist nature of the country of North Korea there isn’t much to be learned from many sources. The culture for all we know could have been changed or added on to sense to the last bits of light were shed on the country. Though it is safe to assume that the culture still revolves around the persona of their countries old leader, Kim Ill Sung. To this day there are badges worm on the left side of any formal attire with the face of Sung and the flag in the back ground. There are few more key cultural pieces to this country but they all share a common theme. North Korea almost has their leader on a god like position. Following him blindly.

Isolated, underdeveloped, and strictly controlled by a regime, North Korea stands as the only totalitarian state to have survived a change in leadership (Behind the Wall…, 2012). North Korea maintains their control and power over the people through many different techniques: stranglehold on information, secret police, concentration camps, and control of the country’s economy. However there is one other factor that drives great fear into its people and the world; their development of nuclear weapons along with their propaganda techniques. On March 3rd, 2016, just last Thursday, North Korea under the direct order of Kim Jong Un, “fired short-range projectiles into the sea” to express their anger over the recent adoption of harsh U.N. sanctions (North Korea makes…, 2016). The following day, the Supreme leader “ordered his military on standby for nuclear strikes at any time” in order to “ramp-up propaganda push in the face of what it portrays as an effort by South Korea and the U.S to overthrow its leadership” (North Korea makes…, 2016). All these threats of nuclear weapons and the North Korea’s slay approach on launching their bombs have created a uproar throughout the world.

North Korea’s success has thus far been in its ability to lie to its people. The nation’s rudimentary military technology, although usually real, has been grossly over-exaggerated with the use of photoshopped material (“How North Korea...”). The public unveiling of several purported “nuclear weapons” via the North Korean News Agency, KCNA, has led to a rapid rise in national fervor for the military (Witty). Although mostly fake, the rapid spread of such propagandized material around North Korea has led to increased public confidence in the government, The propagandist model has succeeded in making up for North Korea’s lack in technological advancements with high conscription rates. If America were to turn to war with the North Koreans, ground troops under Kim Jong Un’s propagandized leadership could be as reckless as those of the Japanese kamikaze that fought almost a century ago. Although the DPRK poses a significant future threat to US security, it has also proven illegitimacy in its committal of countless human rights violations. Last year, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry reported multiple instances of state-sponsored murder, torture, and enslavement. (“North Korean Defectors”). These recent human rights abuses are part of a long-standing history of governmental disregard for human life at the North Korean gulags, or

North Korea is a small country located in HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia" o "East Asia" East Asia. North and South Korea were only one country, but it was divided in1945. North Korea's capital city is HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang" o "Pyongyang" Pyongyang which is the largest city and the highest economy in the country as well.

The Pyongyang regime’s stability in the aftermath of the events in the Middle East and North Africa is an ‘‘old question’’ that was answered in the 1990s when the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea) faced the most critical test of its life, and survived. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the drastic cuts in patron aid from China, and the onset of famine that killed hundreds of thousands all constituted the ultimate test of DPRK stability, and the regime staggered on

Probably this moment marked the last boost the DPRK needed to immerge itself into a nuclear program, there were no guarantees of peace, the discourse alluded to a possible attack, and the US demonstrated there was no room for a non-aggression pact as requested by the DPRK several times before. Furthermore in October 2002, assistant secretary of states for East Asian and pacific affairs James Kelly in a visit to Pyongyang with high rank North Korean officials was informed by that Pyongyang had a clandestine program to enrich uranium ; Position that was later changed denying the existence of such program .