Wall-E: Inside North Korea

Fear a powerful emotion, once it is born it is merely impossible for it to perish. Fear corrupts, tortures, and haunts all. Humans have a horror encrypted into their core. With the power of holding one's fear forms the feeling of paranoia leading to the most holiest power of all, control. Throughout history paranoia has been used to control mass populations and indoctrinate their mind. A common example of this, is the reign of Joseph Stalin; dictator of the Soviet Union who used the paranoia of death and being sent to concentration camp to control his citizens and sustain power. George Orwell, a man who recognized this demoralizing form of dictatorship and was terrified, of what might come if no one rebelled against this. Furthermore he

North Korea is a Totalitarian country that often uses many different fear tactics to control their citizens. “ Her brother who was arrested in China in 1994 for attempting to “defect” from the DPRK... As an example to others against committing similar “anti-state” offenses, he was tied to the back of a truck which took him to their hometown, Musan.”(North Korean control #3 doc A) Someone's brother was arrested in China for trying to defect from North Korea, and as an example, he was dragged around by a truck to show people not to try and escape. This shows that North Korea wanted to impose fear on their citizens, so they wouldn’t try to leave. “The woman she knew was lined up alongside eight other prisoners... her crime was having watched South

Following World War II, Japanese colonization of Korea ended, leaving governments to be established by other parties. The 38th parallel was established in 1945 by the USSR and United States. The U.S. and USSR had heavy influence on the determination of what government North and South Korea had. North Korea had been planning on invading South Korea for a few years before they did take action to invade. They invaded once they were promised assistance from the Soviet Union.

Being completely controlled and even afraid is a part of people’s everyday lives, those of North Korea. Hatred towards this totalitarianism is a philosopher and novelist, Ayn Rand. Rand has written a novel, Anthem, to display the impact of totalitarianism and how she opposes this type of system. Between the everyday life in North Korea and the dystopian society in Anthem, are many similarities and some differences. The structure of the governments, the state of the people, and the little progress made within North Korea and the society of Anthem can certainly be compared.

The government can easily become blinded by money and ignorance. The people should be the ones creating the rules and laws for which they need to abide by. While the government officials are of a higher power, which is a reason that is used to support why the government should be making the regulations, this can blind said officials from reality. They can become only concerned for what the nation itself is, rather than what the people are, without realizing that what makes up a nation is the people. Without the people, there would not be a nation. Only a foundation of what could be. When citizens are forced into submission by the government, they become unhappy. A prime example of this is in “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea”.

The general argument made by Harry J. Kazianis in his work , “The North Korea Nightmare”, is that North Korea chose to isolate themselves thinking that is better for their country but in reality it is not . He writes “there is only one thing that is clear: Tensions on the Korean peninsula are only going to get worse”. In this passage , Kazianis is suggesting that Kim Jong Un is not doing a great job running his country and is causing his country to become isolated from the other countries . Kim enjoys flaunting around his new weapons .”Every time Kim tests a new weapons system — or decides to parade them down the street — the world goes into a panic.” This shows that Kim enjoys the reactions of other countries causing mass destruction and contemplating

Dystopias are prevalent in todays society, that range from documentaries about real life dystopias like North Korea to animated movies about a robots adventure trough a dystopian cruise ship. Wall-E is about a trash compressor robots adventure to bring the citizens of a cruise gone wrong back to earth. Inside North Korea is a documentary about the real life dystopia North Korea and one mans mission to give sight back to the blind, while also exploring the society of North Korea. 1984 is about a man, Winston, and his life in the perfect example of a dystopian society, where everything is controlled by the state, even thoughts. It is important to compare these dystopias to see the key elements in a dystopia.

They fear what they do not know, but the only thing to fear is fear itself. In the novel, fear clouds towns people's judgments force them to lie or controls their actions. When people are afraid, they tend to see the bad over the good. Judgments get clouded when someone is scared of another person. They would automatically think that the person was bad because they terrified them.

Nestled in the north peninsula of Korea in East Asia lies North Korea also referred to as The Peoples Republic of Korea and is divided into nine provinces. The nation has an extensive infrastructure, but not modernized and is underdeveloped. Communism consumes North Korea where isolationism and dictatorship are staples in the government. Every aspect of the nation is state regulated and laws are carried out diligently with serious reprisal for disobedience. North Korea prides itself on their military abilities and puts forth the interests of the military before anything. Despite severe food shortages, economic instability, and lack of electricity, North Korea is undeterred in their efforts to maintain the fourth largest military in the world.

North Korea has a complete and total control of the citizens’ day-to-day life. The people of North Korea base their daily life off of being loyal to and worshiping their countries and leaders. They do this by doing daily rituals to their glorified leaders. North Korea has Mass Games which according to Kim Jong-il were essential because they subdued individual thought and expression. In

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.

There are many instances in the story were people are overcome with emotions that control their whole being these emotions are powerful and destructive as well causing people to become irrational. “Sadness and fear and hate, how they well up in the heart and mind, whenever one opens the pages of these messengers of doom. Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the customs that is gone”(Paton 104).The way the quote goes along with the novel Cry for the beloved country. As during the time that the europeans are taking the land of the natives. They are breaking up the tribes causing families to become separated from one another.

In North Korea all aspects of life are ruled by the government, which essentially takes away human rights. North Koreans, rich or poor have this idea put into their head that their dictator is a supreme god. If someone had the idea of not worshiping the supreme leader in public, they would be sent to a labor camp. North Koreans who try to leave North Korea without permission may be shot on the spot or sent to a labor camp where they may never be released. In every house, no matter where you lived, there is a picture of the supreme leader that you pray to every day. When the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong II, died recently, on December 17th 2011, there was a parade held that had mourners when the casket passed by. As the Supreme Leader’s casket passed by , the mourners were observed to see if they were actually crying. If they didn’t seem like they were sad enough they were sent to prison camps along with other North Koreans that didn’t join the parade. At these Labor camps imprisoned North Koreans are taught how important is to worship the supreme leader and sometimes kept there with their families for as long as they live.

North Koreas intelligence community is in a vibrant atmosphere. Its variations in the configuration and organization change as power shifts within the Communist Party of the People Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK). Currently the majorities of DPRK intelligence agencies are with the Cabinet General Intelligence Bureau (CGIB) of the Korean Worker’s Party Central Committee and work directly for the president of the country. The CGIB is mainly liable for organizing and executing the intelligence directives among different departments actively involved in intelligence collection operations. The

Hyeonseo Lee gave a presentation on TED Talk entitled, “My Escape from North Korea”, summarizing about her life in North Korea. She was born and raised there and sing patriotic songs. All the history books told her that North Korea was the best country in the world. As she got older, a famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990’s. Although, she never experienced starvation, she witnessed the events first hand. This was the pushing point for Hyeonseo, who decided to leave North Korea. Due to China and North Korea’s stringent border policies and the Chinese government immigration policy, the life of a North Korean refugee is challenging and extremely risky. They risk being deported back to the very country that they escaped from. There are reports and stories about the violation of human rights and labor camps in North Korea. She would live in China for ten years before moving to South Korea. Hyeonseo was forced to help her family escape from North Korea. The regime caught Hyeonseo for sending money to her family. Lee’s family to be relocated by the order of the North Korean government. She needed to smuggle them through China to a South Korean embassy in Laos. Unfortunately, Hyeonseo Lee’s story won’t be the last we hear about the abysmal conditions in North Korea. There are, potentially millions more, stories detailing the humanitarian disaster in the country and we must take steps to prepare for the eventual collapse of the country.