North Korea is the new Russia for our media. The obsession to call the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a ‘Rogue Nation’ is spreading wild. I have no sympathies for the totalitarian regime, however, the behaviour of the world leaders especially the NATO is rather pugnacious. This blog comes out of the answers to some simple questions.
- How many people has the North Korean regime killed outside its country in the last decade? Where does it stand with the United States?
- How many sovereign nations has the North Korean regime attacked in the last decade? Where does it stand with the United States?
The answers to both these questions is obvious and will put the entire hysteria around North Korea to perspective. So, where is all this coming from? Let’s break the hysteria down.
As a person who is more inclined to Marxism and Socialism, it bothers me when communism is associated with totalitarian regimes. I do not believe Communism as a form of governance with the power falling into the hands of a minority. Most communist regimes today are mostly oligarchy or totalitarian. There is no accountability. As an atheist, it bothers me when they are referred as atheist or anti-faith regimes. In reality these are state run religions with the rulers worshipped as gods. North Korea fits into this criteria and I do not share any sympathies for that regime. The economy of the country is in shambles and unlike Cuba, the education system has broken down for the public. However, this doesn’t justify the war mongering against them.
The entire history this problem stems from the tensions between the USA and the then communist USSR. Japan had conquered whole of Korea in 1910 and rules them till the end of World War II. When Japan lost the war, Korea got freed by the Allied Powers mainly the USSR and the USA. The former army was in the north and the latter in the south of the infamous 38th Parallel. As time went by, both the armies stuck to their grounds as the US feared the raise of communist influence in Korea. The communists under the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung didn’t deal with the situation smartly either. It led to the split of Korea to the two countries we see now.
The next major incident in this is the Korean War. The war started with Kim Il-sung’s army invading the South. The United Nations gave its green signal to strike back and liberate South Korea. This war resulted in one of the most brutal attacks on the civilians in North Korea and left them in a very bad shape. The bombing of Pyongyang and destruction of its dams and fields is quite well documented. What most people don’t know if the Korean war never officially ended. The war which began in 1953 is still on.
This youtube playlist contains a collection of one of the best videos in this subject.
Once a country gets demolished to the extent North Korea got during the Korean War, it is extremely hard to recover without global support. North Korea got none such. People’s Republic of China was more keen on exploiting North Korea and the USSR was more interested in seeing who wins the cold war. Kim Il-sung didn’t need to motivate people to think the world was against them. The destruction did the job for him. People looked up to him for their survival. It is there in the DNA of the country.
Any half decent psychologist would point out that North Korea’s proliferation of arms at the expense of basic development, unsolicited threats to the US and its allies and self-adulation comes from fear of being attacked. They do not want another Korean war. Their nuclear capability is at its best a deterrent unless they are attacked. They will not wage a war at a large scale. We are dealing with an unstable country with nuclear weapon, ruled by a lunatic.
Considering the circumstances in North Korea and the global climate crisis, another full fledged war would be a catastrophe of proportion that the world hasn’t seen. The answer to the North Korea crisis is not threats but diplomacy. The United Nations along with rest of the countries should focus on development of North Korea, instead of sanctions and threats. It is not going to work in this situation. The people are captives of the government and do not understand that they are in an Orwellian society. Once they have education and the women in the society are empowered, the country will naturally develop. The regime will die a natural death. Most of the world leaders are not having that opinion. They are either just a thin skinned and mentally fragile as Kim Jong-un or want to shift the attention of people from their failing policies. This doesn’t augur well for the world. I wonder where the Doomsday clock is now.
References
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15278612
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Pyongyang
Demystifying a skeptic's world 