The Deaf Leader of North Korea and His Reign of Terror

As evident through the striking similarities between the totalitarian government of 1984 and the Communist regime of North Korea, it really is as if Kim Il Sung obtained an early copy of George Orwell’s 1984 and used it as a blueprint for his system (Hitchens n.p.). George Orwell had been exposed to various types of imperialism throughout his early life, leading to a realization of his resentment for authority. Orwell produced the novel with the intent of warning future societies of the dangers of totalitarian governments, yet North Korea epitomizes a flawless depiction of the very authority that Orwell yearned to avoid through providing a detailed illustration of the ramifications of submitting to a tyrannical government (Merriman n.p.).

(CIA.) Kim Il-Sung taught his people that the US was the ultimate threat to its social system, that the US was the ultimate threat to his political, economic, and military policies surrounding his objective for unification of Korea under his control. (CIA.)

As a result of the regimes isolationist policy the people of North Korea suffered greatly in both mental and physical health. The hold the state had over the beliefs of the citizens presented in “Nothing to Envy”, varied from absolute belief to uncomfortable awareness. The reader is presented often with Mrs. Song’s dedication to the regime, and Kim Il-sung himself. A mother of four she was often gone from home, working and attending ideological training sessions. “Fridays she stayed especially late for self-criticism. In these sessions members of her work unit- the department to which she was assigned- would reveal to the group anything they had done wrong—Mrs. Song would usually say, in all sincerity, that she feared she wasn’t working hard enough” (Pg. 43).When Kim Il-sung died, she

1945-1950: Kim Il-Sung eliminated members of the Northern Korea Worker's party and other homegrown socialists, as well as leading nationalists and political democrats in order to begin securing full political power. Secret Political, Concentration Camps Established the 1950s: A system of secret political prison camps was set up in order to sustain the large-scale purges of the late 1950s.1950s: Kim had members of rival factions, including those in the Soviet, Yanan, and Domestic factions, either exiled or executed. By the late 1950s, the numbers in the purges increased significantly. Thousands were executed publicly while still more were sent to rural areas, mines, hydropower dams, and prison camps. Kim Il-Sung Eliminates All Detractors 1960. Kim Il-Sung's Final Purges Clear the Way for His Son 1970s. The Mass-Starvation of the 1990s: Widespread famine devastated North Korea, killing over 2.5 million, and perhaps upwards of 3.7 million, North Koreans, more than 10 percent of the population. Twenty thousand people starved to death in South Hwanghae Province, which is about ten percent of the area’s

Imagine life on the brink of death and being completely isolated from the outside world. Your surroundings are filled with the scent of rotting corpse and the image of walking skeletons with deformities due to scarce supply of food and countless beatings, torture, and even executions. What I am describing here is the reality for the prisoners in the concentration camps of North Korea. This is a clear violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights because these prisoners are subjugated under these harsh treatments by the government of North Korea. One living example of the brutal treatment endured in these camps is about a survivor of the camps whose name is Shin Dong-hyuk.

The book Escape from Camp 14, by Blaine Harden, follows the early life of Shin Dong-hyuk, the main character, as he grows up in a North Korean labor camp, Camp 14. The Kim dynasty was in control of North Korea during Shin’s time in the labor camp, and remains in control today. The Kim family runs a communist government and kept control by creating labor camps for those who attempted to fight the government system. The novel goes into detail about Shin’s childhood, his young adulthood, his escape and how he had to adapt after escaping. Blaine Harden convincingly argues that North Korean government is extremely hazardous to its inhabitants. The book highlights the dangers that people face, having to live in the labor camps and the perils of

Life in North Korea’s high contrast with life in the United States is marked by nonexistent personal freedoms and harsh punishments. One example of restricted freedom in shown in their leader, Kim Jong-un. He, who they address as Dear Leader, is treated like

Having parents who were anti-communists, Christian, relatives of Koreans, anyone who tried to escape to South Korea were taken into these punishment camps. The third stage of genocide is dehumanization. Kim Il-Sung viewed prisoners as both slaves and western animals. Their punishment was to be hung from a hook and suspended above a fire. Murders by being shot on sticks or poles; many killed for no reason. The fourth stage is organization. Separating each group of the loyal and anti-communists were a task. Women were taken as well as their children. “Targeted groups protected under the Genocide Convention include the half-Chinese babies of North Korean women forcibly repatriated by China” (Park, World Affairs). Because North Korea is bordered by the southern part of China, it was very easy for China to assist in the “mass

The similarities between the novel 1984 by George Orwell and the North Korean government are extensive. North Korea’s tyrannical young leader Kim Jong-Un possesses universal control over the country's population of 24.9 million people. In 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith opposes Big Brother and this therefore leads to his downfall and the forced betrayal of the only person he ever loved. North Korea contains several political prison camps similar to the “ministry of love”, a place for the imprisonment and torture of rebels to Big Brother and the Party.

Labor camps in 1984 were used for punishment when someone commits thoughtcrime. North Korea is believed to have something equivalent to the “Two-minutes hate” where the citizens listen to

Kim Jong Un is systematically trying to eliminate every person who disagrees with him publically. Anyone who commits an illegal crime or gets exposed by gossiping or disagrees with him politically will be confined to these horrendous prison camps. Over one-hundred thousand people were imprisoned in labor camps and about forty thousand have died due to starvation,disease and execution. These camps oppress, degrade and violate innocent people for as long as they live. Prison camps in North Korea are considered the most gruesome throughout the world. Many people are ignorant of these conditions in North Korea, but are defenseless and intolerant towards this dilemma. Prison conditions in North Korea horrific and not much is being done to stop this.

“Three Generations Of Punishment”, a 60 Minutes interview conducted by Anderson Cooper, is a thought provoking look inside North Korea’s political work camps. In this interview, we speak to Shin Dong-hyuk, former resident, and escapee of one of said concentration camps, Camp 14. One hundred and fifty thousand people inhabit Camp 14, which lies fifty miles outside of the city of Pyongyang. This camp, as well as many others, follow the ‘Three Generations of Punishment’ policy institutionalized by former leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung. This law decrees that if someone commits a political wrongdoing, he, and the two generations after him, will live in work camps for their whole lives as a form of punishment. Kim Il-Sung put this system

The Chapter 3 of Charles Armstrong’s The North Korean Revolution focuses on the social engineering of the nascent North Korean regime that brought about drastic social reforms and its implications on various social groups in the North in relation to the formation of the North Korean party-state. Under the auspices of the Soviet authorities, the North Korean Provisional People’s Committee (NKPPC) initiated massive social reforms that mobilized social groups that were formerly marginalized during the colonial era – most notably peasants, workers, women, and youths – to solidify the emerging communist regime of Kim Il Sung. Above all, land reform was the most crucial of the social reforms of the NKPPC and incorporated the peasantry into the largest support base of the communist regime through the Peasant League. Also, through the KCP-controlled North Korean Federation of Trade Unions (NKFTU), North Korea’s sizable urban proletariat population came under the direct control of the regime and became its most loyal supporters.

Given the poor state of the nation's economy, North Korea's government has to rely upon the cult of personality in order to keep the population in check. Most art in the country venerates, either directly or indirectly, the 'great leader' Kim il-Sung or his successor, the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Among the population, there is a strong level of belief in such apparent absurdities as the idea that Kim il-Sung created the entire world, or that Kim Jong-il controls the weather (Martin, 2004).

Over the course of history, it can be determined that the most evil of dictators follow the same set of characteristics. Generally, these tyrants rule with an iron fist, deploying military power whenever they feel they should. They often funnel their state’s coffers into their own personal bank accounts, and it is common for dictators to force their people to treat them with the utmost reverence and respect. These traits are seen in rulers like Hitler, Stalin, Mugabe and Hussein. However, there is one dictator set apart from the rest--the North Korean former President Kim Jong Il. It is Il’s eccentricities, of which there are many, distinguish from the other members of Dictator’s Club.