Totalitarian Regime in North Korea

There are daily examples of discrimination and oppression throughout the world, but one of the most substantial examples is in North Korea. North Korea is an Asian country ruled by a totalitarian dictatorship, although it calls itself a socialist state. The Jong family has ruled North Korea for three generations since the Korean War. The country is said to be a cult as the country’s citizens are forced to worship the countries leaders, discouraged from holding religion and often punished from doing so, and are not allowed to leave the country. Additionally, in North Korea there are no human rights. People are killed or sent to labor camps for even the smallest infractions. North Korea remains one of the most repressive authority’s states on the world. A 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on human rights in North Korea stated that systematic, widespread, and gross human rights violations committed by the government included murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, and other sexual violence, and constituted crimes against humanity (McCurry,2017). Under international pressure North Korea always denies these allegations, but through defectors and satellite images the evidence is clear. Time and time again North Korea has violated human rights. North Korea is a superior example of oppression and discrimination because of the countries laws and judicial system, and the treatment of North Korean citizens.

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.

1984 demonstrates a dystopian society in Oceania by presenting a relentless dictator, Big Brother, who uses his power to control the minds of his people and to ensure that his power never exhausts. Aspects of 1984 are evidently established in components of society in North Korea. With both of these society’s under a dictator’s rule, there are many similarities that are distinguished between the two. Orwell’s 1984 becomes parallel to the world of dystopia in North Korea by illustrating a nation that remains isolated under an almighty ruler.

Also the lack of jobs has led to the majority of the people to be below the poverty line. And the ones with jobs do not get paid much or at all due to government corruption. For example, “Men are forced to work long hours for the government, often without pay, and those that don’t show up for work risk imprisonment”. Which has led to men working worthless jobs and women becoming the breadwinners of the families but still not having the same respect as men. The North Korean government is forcing these men to work for free while their families have no food to eat. Brainwashing and propaganda are also major aspects of the regime to keep the people scared of the world outside North Korea, namely the United States, Japan and South Korea. As shown, “Ak (evil) may be the single most commonly used word to describe Americans. The derogatory term nom, similar to calling someone a bastard, is inevitably attached to the end of any word referring to Americans”. Children from a young age are taught to refer to Americans in such manner to install fear in them to always distrust Americans and their aid. Americans are the worst of the worst type of people, according to the Kim regime, because they prevented the reunification of the two Koreas. Followed closely behind by the Japanese, since there is still resentment from the Japanese colonial rule. South Korea is not as

it. The North Korean State molds everyones thoughts to make it easier to control the

North Koreaś government is a dictatorship with Kim Jong-un as the dictator. The North Koreans treat Jong-un as a god and that he

“I would tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices,” Elie Wiesel tells his former self (118). Wiesel has dedicated a majority of his future to fighting against the world’s silence with lessons such as these found in his memoir, Night. Even after undergoing the mass genocide called the Holocaust and hearing of the experiences from one of the victims himself, the world has fallen into a time of suffering yet again. Today, North Korea’s line of oppressive rulers practice their absolute control on Korean lives just as the Nazi’s oppressed the Jews. Following the second World War, the Korean War took place resulting in the country splitting in two: communist North Korea, or the Korean Worker’s Party, and democratic South Korea, or People’s Republic of Korea. This event began the brutal reign of the Kim family, consisting of Kim Ill-sung, Kim Jong-ill, and Kim Jong-un, on North Korea. For three generations, North Koreans were burdened with decades of torture, starvation, and manipulation. Now, the world is seemingly turning its eyes away from North Korea and labeling it a lost cause. There is little hope in store for these Koreans as Kim Jong-un expands his control globally with a new force of destruction: nuclear weapons. Similar to the concentration camps depicted in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, the people of North Korea continue to face oppression

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,

In order to brainwash the masses, the North Korean government publicizes nationalist mottos everywhere throughout the nation. Demick describes

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

For the people of North Korea, they cannot choose whether or not to experience or even know about the outside world. Another form of brainwashing the hatchery uses is type of classical conditioning. Babies are presented colorful flowers and books. The babies enjoy the ray of colors and are naturally curious about the books. Once the babies are clearly fond of the books and flowers “There was a violent explosion, alarm bells maddeningly sounded and the children started crying.” (Huxley 21) which classically conditions the baby to hate flowers and books all their life. The same is true with our society and other groups of people. Growing up, parents, knowingly or not, classically condition their kids to think certain ways about certain groups of people. As a result, in 2006, psychologist Susan Fiske examined how people’s brains reacted to images of addicts and homeless people. She found strong neural signs of disgust, supporting the theory that “extreme out-groups may be perceived as less than human, or dehumanized.” (Susan Fiske) In both cases, people have preconceived notions about certain things/people they learned at a young age. In a “Brave New World”, people have preconceived

Envision, walking down the street and seeing posters plastered all over persuading and screaming out at you how terrific, strong, and successful your leader is, wouldn’t you feel pretty great about your country? In North Korea, their society is exactly that, the article “Cult of personality: why do so many leaders force their people to worship them as heroes?” by Fred Bratman and the National Geographic video explain this concept very well. Between North Korea constantly shoving propaganda, statues, and myths into their citizens faces unequivocally their citizens will be manipulated and believe their leader is a god in disguise.

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

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).