The Most Isolated Country in the World

[Note:  Most of the research compiled for this post came from Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, a book based on the shocking and inspiring stories of North Korean defectors.  I strongly recommend this book!]

North Korea is the one place in the world that remains a mystery to most people.  Whether it has been images of Kim Jong-Il’s funeral procession with men weeping hysterically or the recently released picture of their 1950’s-era mission control room of their (failed) satellite launch, the common American response has always been, “Seriously?”  Although the personality cult that North Korean leaders have created is captivating, the more somber pictures of North Korea are the haunting images of children dying during the horrific famine of the 1990s (which some believe still occurs to this day).  So the question remains, how can a country in the 21^st century remain a mystery to outsiders?  And more importantly (especially in the era of the Arab Spring), why haven’t North Koreans revolted?  It is perplexing, from the perspective of an American, to understand this.  As individuals, we are accustomed to question everything, sometimes including authority.  We are consumed on a daily basis with our email, text messages, YouTube, and Facebook updates.  Kids as young as ten are walking around with cell phones (and nicer than mine!).  When we are trying to learn about something or answer a question (Who sang that song…who is that actor?), we immediately go to Google.  We have the world at our fingertips.  However, North Korea has remained an isolated country.  As the 21^st century rapidly progresses forward, the Hermit Kingdom (their fitting nickname) continues to trouble (and amaze) us.

Beginning in the 20^th century, the Korean peninsula had become a pawn in a growing rivalry between China and Japan.  Unfortunately, the geographic location of Korea meant that control over this area would lead to greater geopolitical power in Asia. As Japanese imperialist motives expanded, Korea found itself under this new sphere of influence for almost 35 years.  Following World War II, the Allies spent more energy on what to do with Germany and Japan, thus leaving Korea more as an “afterthought”.  Prior to foreign rule, Koreans associated themselves more as East/West; however, the Allies decided to divide the peninsula in terms of North/South.  By 1948, the South was under the guidance of US-backed Princeton graduate, Syngman Rhee while the North rallied around former Japanese resistance fighter, Kim Il-sung.  After almost three years of intense fighting, both sides signed an armistice on July 17, 1958.  However, there was no official closure for either side resulting in a stalemate still on display along the 38^th parallel.

Kim Il-sung exerted control by organizing and enforcing a class system.  This wasn’t just a Communist ideal, social hierarchy was a fundamental teaching of Confucianism (which has been part of Korean culture since being adopted from China).  In 1958, the leader ordered background checks which resulted in a song-bun, or rating.  Three overall classes emerged:  the core class, the wavering class and the hostile class.  The hostiles consited of kisaeng (female entertainers), fortune-tellers, mudang (shamans) and political dissidents.  There was no mobility within the classes, your position in society was hereditary and if you were descendants of the hostile class, you were classified as beulsun, or “tainted blood”.  Overseeing the 51 categories, were the Great Leader and his family, who maintained the highest rank in society.  Kim Il-sung believed that his God-given power was similar to the European absolute rulers of the 15-16^th century.  He was able to maintain this rigid class structure because of the fear that he inspired when he created the inminban, or “people’s group” which oversaw specific neighborhoods and would report back to the Communist Party with any and all suspicious behavior.  Many people were sent to labor camps because of a snide comment made about the ruler in front of supposed friends.  It is because of these “civilian watchdogs” that people throughout North Korea never spoke against the government or the Great Leader; thus strengthening Kim Il-sung’s control over his people.

Besides an organized classification system, the Great Leader employed propaganda to control the minds of his people.   He appointed his son and future leader, Kim Jong-Il as the head of the Workers’ Party Bureau of Propaganda and Agitation.  Kim Jong-Il became involved with movies and ran the Korean Feature Film Studio outside of the capital, releasing about 40 films a year.  These films dealt with themes such as collective good over individual desire, the evils of Capitalism, and self-sacrifice.  No outside films were allowed except for a few Russian films.  Propaganda and its ultimate effect of brainwashing started at an early age for North Koreans.  In every school, there was a room called the Kim Il-sung Research Institute that was a shrine to the Great Leader and his achievements.  In most cities, this was the only room in the school that was heated and cleaned due to the random checks by the Workers Party.  Teachers were required to play the accordion, also known as the “people’s instrument” and played “We Have Nothing to Envy in the World”.

                                    Our father, we have nothing to envy in the world.

                                    Our house is within the embrace of the Workers’ Party.

                                    We are all brothers and sisters.

                                    Even if a sea of fire comes toward us, sweet children

                                    Do not need to be afraid,

                                    Our father is here.

                                    We have nothing to envy in this world.  (Demick, 119)

In 2003, “Where Are We Going” was a poem published for 1^st graders.  This propaganda attacked the Japanese for their role in colonizing Korea, but also addressed the unity and togetherness of the North Korean people.  By targeting a particular scapegoat (similar to Hitler during World War II) he was able to unify his people against a common enemy.

                                   Where have we gone?

                                    We have gone to the forest.

                                    Where are we going?

                                    We are going over the hills.

                                    What are we going to do?

                                    We are going to kill the Japanese soldiers.  (119)

This idea of having a common enemy was also directed towards the Americans in a popular song children learned in music class, “Shoot the Yankee Bastards”.

                                    Our enemies are the American bastards

                                    Who are trying to take over our beautiful fatherland.

                                    With guns that I make with my own hands

                                    I will shoot them.  BANG, BANG, BANG.  (119).

Propaganda was even employed in one of the darkest periods of North Korea, the famine that killed millions.

During the beginning of North Korea’s Communist state, workers were given food coupons based on their work.  However, with the fall of the USSR and China’s economic opening, 1989-1991 saw an immediate and significant decrease in food rations.  Yet again, the propaganda machine told its people that they were saving food for the “starving South Korean masses on the blessed day of reunification” or that the US was blockading food.  The State run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun published, “The people of Korea have long suffered from the blockade and sanctions of the U.S. imperialists” (69).  These food shortages became evident as children’s muscle volume started to decrease.   Due to the lack of food, mothers were adding weeds and wild grasses to their soup to make it look hearty, but the children’s stomachs just couldn’t digest it.  There also became a new infliction called the “eyeglass disease” (also known as pellagra) which was caused by a lack of niacin because children were given a corn-only diet that caused skin rashes around the eyes and collarbones (113).  Children became known as kochebi or “wandering swallows” (160).  Many kids who had lost their parents started migrating to the train stations hoping to get food.  Most of these kids never made it, their bodies laying out in public for days until a man with a cart would come around and dispose of the skeletons.  Food was so scarce that family pets began to go missing and rumors of cannibalism spread around villages.  People had to become more creative when it came to acquiring food and as one defector stated, “simple and kindhearted people who did what they were told—they were the first to die” (141).  By 1998, 600,000 to 2 million people died as a result of the famine, about 10% of their population (145).

Korea was known as han nara, meaning one people, one nation; however, the division of the peninsula has resulted in two polar opposite countries.  Many fear North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.  Others are more concerned with the humanitarian crisis affecting the citizens of this isolated country.  In a recent Op-Ed article from The Los Angeles Times, “The Real Life ‘Hunger Games'”, Blaine Harden makes the astute connection between one of the most popular teen books/movie of this year to the real-life struggles young people face in trying to survive in North Korea.  Harden points out this disheartening truth, “But it breaks my heart that even as we root for the survival of the fictional Katniss, we do not know enough — or care enough — to raise our collective voice and demand that North Korea stop breeding, starving and enslaving labor-camp children.”  Perhaps this attitude can be attributed to our own comfortable lives or the fact that many of us find it hard to believe that such a society can still exist in today’s modern world.  When I reach the DMZ and stare into North Korea, I will be thinking of those kids who are struggling to survive and my goal to inspire my students to recognize and emphasize with a society stuck in isolation, in their own prison.  Perhaps then, we can feel grateful about our own lives and hope for a time when this brutal isolation will end and North Koreans will experience what it means to be “free”.