The Democratic People 's Republic Of Korea

North Korea is a country that is ruled by a dictator and has a communist government. A communist government rules all the land and gives the same amount of money and supplies to all the people in the country. “Daily Necessities were obtained from the Public Distribution System (PDS)” (95,Hassig). The PDS shut down in 1995 because foreign aid was cut off expect for Pyongyang, the capital city. In rural areas, a lot of the children were born as “no-count” meaning that when they were born they weren’t counted as part of the existing society and didn’t have supplies given to them. North Korea was once a unified country with South Korea until September 9, 1948 when it became a separate country. From 1910 to 1945 Japan had ruled

The government structure of North Korea has its existence in one man, Kim Jong Un. It existed in his father, Kim Jong Il, before him, and in his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, before him. North Korea has one of the few successful hereditary dictatorships based on a personalistic regime where the leaders are worshipped as almost a deity (after Kim Il-sung’s death he was made “eternal president”) creating a dynastic transfer of power (Aoki, 2012). In China the one party of the Chinese Communist Party will rule as an Authoritarian body over the nation, but in North Korea the sole power rest dangerously in the arms of one person. Some of the reason for this dissimilarity between the two government structures lies in the country’s differing political cultures.

In North Korea, a totalitarian or dictatorial government prevails, where one “Supreme Leader” is revered and even worshipped. This government features a monolithic system, which plays “a crucial role in enabling the continuing monopoly of power by a sole leader” (Park 5-6). All components of life and society thus become fully oriented toward the goals of the head of state, Kim Jong-un, and the Kim dynasty. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the government-headed Korean Central News Agency heavily commands the “dissemination of information, and all papers are strictly censored” (Lee et al.). This control over the movement of ideas in the population not only fosters the spread of government ideology but also prompts citizens to remain ignorant regarding certain issues, such as government actions

North Koreas government uses its power to control information and restrict independent thought and freedom. The BBC News mentions, “North Koreas economic hardships or famines are not reported to the domestic audience” (North Korea’s Tightly Controlled Media). This shows how the government in North Korea uses their power to keep the inhabitants of the country blind to issues that would cause worry amongst them. The BBC News author later on mentions that rather than inform its citizens on real life issues occurring, they are informed of technological advances developed by their leaders’ revolutionary thinking. By doing this the North Korean government keeps the people blind and ignorant to complicated

North Korea was born when Korea was split in half. The northern half being dominated by communism while the southern portion became western oriented. Although this may be true, North Korea named itself the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, despite it being a totalitarian communist government. For example, the elections held in North Korea are non-competitive since North Korea is a single-party communist state currently led by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, ruled with an iron fist— people who tries to leave North Korea without state permission gets criminalizes and gets forcibly returned. And those who get repatriated face interrogation, torture, and consignment to political prisoner or forced labor camps. Additionally,

Such principles that resonate with many of the citizens include the fact that Goldstein is an enemy of Big Brother, their leader. Therefore, The Party naturally engages their citizens into an activity that directs hate towards Goldstein in which, “the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, has flashed onto the screen” (11) which then prompts a public backlash against him. This scenario in which propaganda is used to alter the public’s mindset is also frequently seen in North Korea’s government. The government along with North Korea’s leader aim to “create an image of god like proportions about themselves by controlling the information that their citizens have about them, and using their own selected media to sway the people’s thoughts and opinions” (Martinez). In order to fulfill these requirements, North Korea has a history of brainwashing their citizens by providing them false information. These tactics include dealing with many negative situations that involve their government.

Although most governments put positive spins on things, normally, they would at the very least give us a glimpse of the truth. North Korea doesn’t do that. Finally, Demick concludes that The citizens of North  Korea aren't treated the way they should

George Orwell’s 1984, gives readers a glimpse of what it would look like to have a future with a totalitarian government. A future where one person will control everybody through manipulation and fear. These types of governments continue to exist in certain countries today, one of them being North Korea. North Korea’s government is similar to the Party in 1984, in which their government is a totalitarian dictatorship where Kim Jong Un, their singular leader, controls everything. Both governments in North Korea and 1984 are led by dictators, “Big Brother” in 1984 and Kim Jong Un in North Korea, who are similar in many ways. Their similarity is due to the various techniques they use, which include mind control, propaganda and deprivation of freedom. It is clear that both governments use a variety of different methods of manipulation to control to their citizens.

The Secret State of North Korea offered a great look into what basic things North Koreans are lacking. Even within the realm of Communism. Lack of freedoms, lack of food, lack of community, lack of trust, lack of a social society, lack of programs for children, lack of equality, and a lack of information. When Kim Il-Sung created North Korea, the government was based on Marxism and Leninism, called “Juche.” Just as the Soviets, the North Koreans followed suite with massive inequality between the government officials and the common people. The documentary showed its viewers what the government is omnipresent in the everyday lives of its people, so much so that recordings of daily life are illegal, and “random” searches take place commonly.

Following the fall of the U.S.S.R., North Korea has almost directly become the empire of repression that George Orwell illustrated in Nineteen Eighty Four. Although North Korea is lacking in a technological sense compared to “The Party”, they have some very similar tactics such as the invasion of privacy, the creation of class systems and the use of propaganda to hold their oppressive power in place.

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

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 appears on the international stage as a country existing beyond the world we all know. It isolates its citizens from the rest of international community and does not obey any rules determined by international law, but requires respect and recognition. Moreover, North Korea is one of the countries that remains aggressive towards its neighbors and applies various terrorist techniques, i.e. illegal contraband, political terror and mass abductions of other countries’ citizens in its foreign policy. The reasons for which the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) behaves so unpredictably and irrationally are diversified. First of all, the DPRK as a country is managed very irrationally – regimes of Kim Il-sung and

I confess that before reading the book Korea: The Impossible Country (and taking classes in college), I did not know much about South Korea or North Korea. The focus of this book is on South Korea but as both Koreas are historically intertwined, North Korea is also many times cited or referred to in the pages of this work. Korea: The Impossible Country, written by the journalist and writer Daniel Tudor and published by Tuttle Publisher - Tokyo, is a book acclaimed by the international press. The author is a correspondent for the Economist in Korea. He is also a regular contributor to Newsweek Korea and other publications. Tudor has gained a solid educational background in the Oxford and Manchester Universities. With all these

The allied victory of World War II marked the end of the Empire of Japan’s 35-year colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. The Soviet Union and the United States both agreed to occupy the country along the 38th parallel. The arrangement granting temporary rights to each nation over the Korean peninsula occurred under the assumption that giving trusteeship would ultimately lead to the establishment of an independent Korea. The emergence of the Cold War prevented the formation of a unified Korea. Failure to accept United Nations resolutions by the Soviet Union caused the formation of a communist government in the North, while in the South the United States introduced a democratic government. Two extremely distinctive countries were created