North Korea is, to put it mildly, a “problem.” The so-called
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea devotes much of its time to
threatening other nations. Pyongyang spends money that it doesn’t
have on nuclear weapons, missiles, and bizarrely choreographed and
synchronized propaganda ceremonies. It has pioneered a system of
monarchical communism, passing power from one idiot son to
another.
Worse, at least for the North Korean People, the DPRK has
created a genuine gulag state, with a smaller but still murderous
“gulag archipelago,” as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously called
Joseph Stalin’s creation. The most important political challenge
facing Washington remains the North’s nuclear program. But the
ultimate objective is to relax Pyongyang’s grip over the suffering
population.
That the DPRK is repressive is hardly news. However, it is
difficult for anyone in the West to imagine the full extent of
repression in the North.
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea recently issued
the second edition of David Hawk’s
The Hidden Gulag: The Lives and Voices of “Those Who Are Sent
to the Mountains.” The study is grimly enlightening,
relying on satellite imagery and personal testimony, ever more
abundant now that there are more than 23,000 North Korean escapees
now living in the South. The publication is a critical attempt,
observes Roberta Cohen, who chairs the Committee, to breach “the
conspiracy of silence surrounding the camps.”
The DPRK was a Cold War creation, established after Japan’s
surrender in World War II left the Korean peninsula divided between
hostile U.S. and Soviet client states. Moscow tapped Kim Il-sung to
run the Soviet zone, which became formally independent in 1948. Kim
learned well from Stalin, out-maneuvering internal opponents to win
supreme power and creating a system of pervasive social control to
terrorize the population. Kim’s horrifying twist to Stalin’s style
was to punish three generations of a family for the “crimes” of any
member. Children, parents, and grandparents routinely ended up in
the North Korean gulag.
The entire North Korean system is built on repression. Explains
Hawk, a long-time human rights researcher, “these severe human
rights violations occur in an environment of large-scale denial of
human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Nowhere else on earth —
though perhaps Eritrea comes close — does the state so completely
control its people.
Everyone is at risk of brutal punishment. For instance,
wrong-doing includes being on the losing side of a political battle
or, notes Hawk, “skipping too many of the compulsory ideological
education classes all North Koreans are required to attend,
defacing or failing to take adequate care of photographic images of
Kim Il-sung, complaining about conditions, expressing criticism of
regime policies, or leaving the country without permission.”
Wrong-thinking encompasses everything from being a Christian to
being an orthodox Marxist who opposed monarchical communism.
Wrong-class means having been a landlord or “privileged
bourgeoisie” under the Japanese.
Wrong-knowledge “includes the situation of North Korean students
or diplomats who had been studying or posted in Eastern Europe in
the late 1980s during the collapse of socialism, and who were
recalled to the DPRK only to be immediately dispatched to labor
camps to prevent their knowledge of the collapse of state socialism
in North Korea’s allies from spreading to the North Korean
population.” Finally, wrong-association includes having a close
family member who falls in one of the forgoing forbidden
categories.
As in Stalin’s Russia, in prison purged members of the elite mix
with social outcasts and regime opponents. Moreover, explains Hawk,
the camp system “became a convenient dumping-ground for other
individuals or groups that do not fit in,” including unrepatriated
South Korean POWs in the Korean War and South Koreans fighting with
U.S. soldiers in Vietnam who were captured and then turned over to
the North.
There is no pretense of legal process. The Nazis flaunted the
facade of legality: the July 1944 plotters against Adolf Hitler
were tried before the notorious Roland Freisler before being
functionally murdered. Joseph Stalin enjoyed staging show trials on
the most fantastic charges. However, the Kim family dictatorship
does not bother with such procedural facades.
Hawk explains: “The presumed offender is simply picked up, taken
to an interrogation facility and frequently tortured to ‘confess’
before being deported to the political penal-labor colony. The
family members are also picked up and deported to the
kwan-li-so.” The regime wastes no time detailing the
alleged crimes, though questions from interrogators might suggest
the general offense. All inmates are held incommunicado, in
contrast to the Soviet system, which allowed most inmates at least
occasional visits and parcels.
No surprise, inmates are systematically brutalized. Notes the
author, “The most salient feature of the day-to-day prison labor
camp life is the combination of below-subsistence food rations and
extreme hard labor.” The semi-starved “prisoners are driven by
hunger to eat, if they can get it (and avoid being caught) anything
remotely edible: plants, grass, bark, rats, snakes, the food-stuffs
of the labor camp animals.” This, plus the prevalence of
informants, encourages inmate-on-inmate violence. Even child
inmates, incarcerated for the actions or thoughts of parents or
grandparents, enjoy no respite. Those interviewed by Hawk were
frequently beaten.
Prisoners are slaves for the regime, managing crops, raising
animals, mining and logging, engaging in wood-work, and making
textiles. Such enterprises provide some economic benefits for the
regime, but are notoriously inefficient. An even more important
purpose of the system likely is punishment.
Working conditions are harsh and the death rate is very high,
though unreported. However, surviving is a dubious benefit. Hawk
observes that “The prisoners are covered in dirt from the
infrequency of bathing privileges, and marked by physical
deformities: hunched backs, from years of bent-over agricultural
work in the absence of sufficient protein and calcium in the diet;
and missing toes and fingers, from frostbite; and missing hands, or
arms or legs, from work accidents.”
Jack in Wi.| 5.3.12 @ 6:48AM
This is a very intresting essay Mr. Bandow. Monarchial Communism seems to be rather widespread. Look at China, Vietnam, and Russia, a lot the kids of the Communist elites, are now the new capital elites. We can only hope that the North Koreans move in that direction. But why the hell are we still stuck on the Korean peninsula? These surly are the problems for the Korean people to solve.
Doctor Right| 5.3.12 @ 8:34AM
Are you really that clueless?
We are not "stuck" on the Korean peninsula; we are there at the behest of our capitalist, democratic allies, and because it's in our best interests to do so.
South Korea is a wealthy, highly educated, advanced 1st-world nation. They are a highly valuable trading partner, too, and that trade benefits our economy and theirs.
To simply leave South Korea would leave them at the mercy of North Korea's 6 million man military of lunatic robots, as well as to the undo influence of China.
Anyone who proposes what you obviously think is completely ignorant of world politics and economics.
But that pretty much describes you, Jack, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
FYI, Jack, there's no Jews in Korea, so you don't have to hate them.
Just Tom| 5.3.12 @ 9:15AM
The KPA has no where near 6 million men, they are badly equipped, and awfully trained. The ROK armed forced are more than a match for the KPA. Sure, the KPA would kill a lot of South Koreans but the ultimate result of any invasion of South Korea, even absent American troops, would be the destruction of the North Korean state.
Your points about Chinese influence make more sense.
DTOM!| 5.3.12 @ 10:19AM
Obviously you don't live in South Korea. Sure is easy, just tossing countries under the bus. Is it fun, too?
The eternal problem of national interest is not about where we want to go; it's how the heck do we get there from where we already are.
Rationality is something very rare in the leaders of countries. As evidence, I offer all of human history...
Doctor Detroit| 5.3.12 @ 10:59AM
Collective, centralized government is like a disease. The natural progression of cancer if left untreated is usually death. The natural progression of socialism is North Korea. It's simply Obama's policies but decades ahead. So if we don't act, our children will see REAL tyranny, not just the soft tyranny M. Levin speaks of in our present day US.
Robert| 5.3.12 @ 2:09PM
Ya stole my thunder, Dr. Detroit! I was about to post the same comment. North Korea is the apotheosis of Marxist utopian dream: Absolute elitist control of every aspect of the population. Absolute control requires absolute terror. Both are the hallmarks of the system when brought to its logical evolutionary distillation.
Yes, this is what the regime has in mind for the US. They dare not speak of it, but occasionally confessional crumbs drop from the mouths of the hawks. Wasn't it Obama acolyte William Ayers who said something to the effect 'it might take the 'elimination of 25 million Americans who would not conform to the new order'? That almost equals Mao's Great Leap FORWARD (oh dear, did the Big O also steal Chairman Mao's campaign slogan?). And Mao had to deal with about a billion more uncooperative peasants than Ayers.
Doctor Right| 5.3.12 @ 10:28AM
North Korea's military has 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. That includes MILLIONS of artillery shells that they'll lob at South Korea, both high-explosive and gas. It is also a nuclear-weapons state and has an active space program.
The fact that they are badly equipped and awfully trained is irrelevant. Most of them are mere bat-shit crazy, robotic drones (like Ron Paul supporters), and will attack in one massive human wave after another to achieve their objectives.
Man for man, the ROK soldiers FAR outclass any soldier from the North...but South Korea has 520,000 total individuals serving in their army. That's an 18:1 ratio.
As far as China is concerned, they LOVE using North Korea as an irritant and a distraction to the West, and they will keep doing it as long as North Korea is a viable state.
China is our REAL enemy...but most people in this country refuse to acknowledge this.
chuck| 5.3.12 @ 3:02PM
Doctor Right,
How dare you compare N. Korean soldiers to Ron Paul supporters! N. Korean soldiers are much more reasonable.
Doctor Right| 5.3.12 @ 3:16PM
And far less fanatical...
jan| 5.3.12 @ 7:19PM
Ditto, My grand father said it 60 years ago, the biggest danger is the yellow danger, his words.
Harry the Horrible| 5.3.12 @ 12:21PM
Dunno.
I think South Korea can take the Norks. They're better equipped, better trained, better supplied and probably better led.
The Norks are starving and don't have the resources to train. All they have are bodies. Put some noodle shops in the way of their army and it will probably stall...
In some ways, I think the PRC may have more do with our presence in South Korea than North Korea does.
RTO| 5.3.12 @ 4:00PM
Our friends and allies in Japan very much appreciate a sizable U.S. presence on the Korean peninsula. This is worth a lot.
Plus we are helping back up what is one of the world's best stories of successful capitalism and a transformed society -- South Korea. Think South Korea when they hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988. Now fast forward to today. NO COMPARISONS.
Don't for a second think other nations in Asia, Latin America, and even in South America don't now look at South Korea with some envy.
It always helps to showcase that capitalism, free markets, free enterprise, free decisions, elections, free speech, freedom to assemble -- work. South Korea is a place that has openly accepted Christianity and benefited greatly from doing so. (Maybe there are some correlations here?)
Harry the Horrible| 5.4.12 @ 9:35AM
Hey, if there is one place that deserves our support, it is South Korea.
My dad was an officer there during the early '60s ands was completely unimpressed with the locals (though he did say their military was tough to the point of being brutal). He didn't want us to buy a Kia, because he thought that all Korean products were crap. After some research, he acknowledges that South Korea is almost an entirely new nation and their products cutting edge.
I'm just saying, that South Korea does not NEED our help anymore. We've covered them long enough for them build up on their own. Having them as allies is a great thing.
jan| 5.3.12 @ 7:20PM
Just 1 boomer of the No Korean coast can take care of it all.
Gary B| 5.3.12 @ 7:26AM
Does anyone see the irony here? The DC ruling elite ostensibly opposes the brutal repression of the North Korean people, while it pushes its own totalitarian agenda here. Can't you just feel the envy?
The number of Constitution-free zones is growing by leaps and bounds (spreading TSA groping stations, no free speech zones around politicians, unapologetic 3am no-knock breakins at the wrong address, general police brutality, arrest without due process, general class warfare, deceptive law making, etc. ). Every day we read about another executive order or freedom-repressing "law" passed by Congress. Isn't the inevitable conclusion to all of these "security measures" our own system of gulags?
Perhaps the subject of Mr. Hawk's next book should be a little closer to home. You know, the land of the free and home of the brave.
Here's a final paragraph from this article: "The Kim regime exists only because of pervasive repression; those benefiting from Pyongyang's totalitarian control are not going to yield power simple because they are asked to do so. Greater respect for human liberty and dignity will require a transformation from within..."
Can you identify with any of this? Sounds like Tea Party to me.
Gary B| 5.3.12 @ 7:57AM
I meant the Tea Party is the only solution, because there will be no transformation from within.
chuck| 5.3.12 @ 7:59AM
Just remember that North Korea was started as a vision of utopia.
Gary B| 5.3.12 @ 9:02AM
"Forward!"
Stormzeye| 5.3.12 @ 8:47AM
Remember the outrage of the media when G.W. Bush included N.Korea, Iraq and Iran within the Axis of Evil? Since then nothing has been written or said in support of those tormented souls who have to endure the horrors of this monstrous sink hole of evil. Once again the media is complicit in perpetuating these horrors no less than they were during the '30s with Stalin.
RTO| 5.3.12 @ 4:24PM
Stormzeye, I had always thought that a reunited Germany (after 1989) would be the best friend in the world to South Korea and to all efforts (proper efforts) to bring about a swift and peaceful reunification between North and South Korea -- with, of course, Soeul calling the shots just as Bonn did post 1990.
I thought, they should be kindred spirits. German families knew how horrid it was to be separated, to have no contact, no visits, no parcels sent or letters (or, if sent, steamed open, read, and contents pilfered). The anger that good Germans had toward this ugly separation for decades ought to have made them strong advocates for South Korea.
There is a lot of silence and inaction to go around. Not just in U.S. State Department and U.S. Dept. of Commerce turds, in all kinds of nations and international bodies that ought to be pounding the stuffing out of Pyoungyang at every turn.
Where is National Geographic pounding down the door to get inside N. Korea? (for annual, yearly photo journalism) The International Red Cross? Odd how easy it is to get UN Turtle Bay turds all riled up about Israel or even Tibet and yet not about Pyongyang?
It is not just the media. Sports teams could try to force the issue. North Koreans, like so many nations, follow football. Big clubs like Manchester United could come calling....and purposely do youth clinics out in the hinterlands where normally western eyes and western media and journalists don't get to go....Do a match for the prisoners inside one of these camps? Why not? Agree to North Korea officialdom's state propaganda facade big game in the stadium in Pyongyang - but only after having done two camp games in the days prior.
There are lots of the silent. Those of us who are far more comfortable in our lives looking away. It is not just media.
hardcard| 5.3.12 @ 9:35AM
They also eat dog in N.Korea, when they can catch one. Ah!! The gloriy of socialism. Forward with obozo the First, our Supreme Eater.
Kingofthenet| 5.3.12 @ 9:45AM
This problem can ONLY end internally, someone has to destroy the dynasty, by taking out a few key players.
Skippy| 5.5.12 @ 1:20PM
Wow, you sound like the brave crusaders of liberty with the "Free Tibet" bumperstickers on their Volvos.
Fight or die.
nathan| 5.3.12 @ 10:28AM
Jefferson said when a government reduces a people to a state of despotism, they have not only a right but . . . an obligation to deal with the despots. Notice he did not say other people/countries had an obligation to deal with said despots on behalf of the oppressed peoples, but that the people themselves who had been reduced to a state of despotism, they and they alone had the obligation to do so.
We can feel bad for these people and we do. Just as we feel bad for the victims of oppression in other countries around the world. But it is not for us to engage in wars to free all those who so oppressed. It is not for us to go and play world's policeman. We have no "white man's burden" here. We can not be both a republic and an empire. As we have seen the past decade, an attempt to do both means dimished freedoms at home starting with the misnamed Patriot Act culminating with the Fifth Amendment destr0ying language in the NDAA.
So again while we feel sorry for these people it is up to them and them alone to throw off their chains and we wish them well when they finally make the attempt.
Bill| 5.3.12 @ 11:36AM
Mexico and South America pose a bigger threqat than North Korea. Those uneducated illegal Hispanics stealing our jobs and abusing our welfare system, sending billions of dollars to South America every year. North Korea is almost 15K miles offshore, and they ain't got no nuclear bombs. Get those amigos out of America.
Mistral| 5.3.12 @ 2:31PM
The USA should end the silly so-called"humanitarian" aid given to feeding the North's starving masses. The regime's life is being extended by it. Everything should be done to bring about its demise.
Dick Nome| 5.3.12 @ 3:46PM
We are feeding the NORK Army, not the starving civilian population.
Skippy| 5.5.12 @ 1:35PM
Then stop doing so now.
Force the issue and quit stalling.
Make them do something so we can finish this charade.
RAN| 5.3.12 @ 3:54PM
With Moscow's key hand behind the creation of North Korea in the mid 1940's, well, have we ever heard an apology or words of regret from Moscow about what it aided? About the the dictator state government functionaries Russia trained?
I don't believe we have. Yet Russia or the Russian Federation since its metamorphosis circa 1991-1992 from the USSR has had ample time under Yeltsin and now Putin to do so, right?
People wanna believe that Russia is a better place now, that they've changed, that they have embraced new things, new desires to harmonize and get along. In issue after issue, closely examined, there is nothing to like, admire, or be cozy with regarding Russia -- or China.
We need to pray for the North Korean people. The brutishness meted out on them needs to cease.
Richard Baker| 5.3.12 @ 4:31PM
Wonder how many totalitarian-minded lefties here in the US admire and would copy this regime's treatment of the population, if they could? Might be interesting to know.
Bill| 5.3.12 @ 6:06PM
Mexico is bigger threat than North Korea. Look at those 20 million amigos giving births of another 20 million anchor babies.
cicero| 5.3.12 @ 9:17PM
We complain about the brutality of the North Koreans, and we complain about the duplicity of the Pakistanis, but we still send food and money, among other things, all on the premise that if we don't the Chinese will increase their influence. What folly! The Chinese cannot even feed themselves. Leave the N. Koreans and the Pakistanis to the tender mercies of the Chinese communist state. Only then will the mask come off, and the insanity of socialism become apparent. The fact that the people of those sorry excuses for countries will suffer is only a matter of degree. As long as we prop them up, for whatever reason, our fellow travellers will continue to make excuses for the obvious failure.
albert constantine jr.| 5.3.12 @ 10:21PM
It is past 10:15 EDT, but there is not yet a comment from POST American on this article about North Korea. The Red Chinese TREE-sun Op with the CFR must be taking its toll.
POST American| 5.3.12 @ 10:26PM
---Great piece!
BTW --one and all should CHECK OUT
Joel Skousen's interview on Alex Jones day before yesterday.
His informed hunch has the FINAL stage
of NWO roll out is quite possibly going to
happen post a nuclear exchange between RED
China and the US subsequent to an invasion
of South Korea by the North.
He points out there's been an ongoing
cover-up of the REAL military threat
by RED China and Russia BOTH.
Our military intel gives but one glance
a year in RED China's direction as far as
intel reports go. And for Russia ---NONE
at all.
SO, that's the scenario: a full blown
invasion of South Korea by a RED China
backed North which triggers a nuclear
response that gets larger and larger.
Predicting perhaps 15 American cities destroyed
---but the rest more or less intact.
At that point the 'savior' Globalist forces
will intervene to take command and
'MAN--age' the situation.
Marry this to the long term, Global
plans to get ISLAM going as their religion
of choice for broader social 'CON--troll'
and ---BINGO! ---it's ALLL there.
(SEE 'Clash of Civilizations' pt. 2
RED Ice radio interview with
Jay Weidner thru yahoo videos)
AGAIN, this is the very 11th hour of
the 4 decades on, CFR--RED China
handover, takedown, TREASON,
OCCUPATION and FINAL EUGENICS OP.
And FINALLY, yet again, let us remind you
"KOREA, and NOT the long gone world
wars, is rapidly emerging as the defining
conflict of the 20th century viz a viz the
Globalism and EUGENICS 21st."
Kingofthenet| 5.3.12 @ 11:04PM
Ah Yes, the 'Red' Chinese will invade South Korea, to form some sort of NWO, than after a nuclear exchange and ALL of Asia and the USA in destruction, the NWO will reach it's goals..
POST American| 5.4.12 @ 1:56AM
'--O)N this, the AGAIN 'overlooked'
60th Anniversary of the cosmically
relevant, Globalism, RED China and
EUGENICS ---'unfriendly'
--------------------KOREAN WAR----------------------'
----'SUB---Mitt ROME--knee'?
-----------'BAR--Rockefeller H. Obama'?
------------------Just KEEP ON ----GOIN'!
PolishKnight| 5.4.12 @ 11:14AM
While this is a thought provoking, and emotionally disturbing essay to read and the responses on this forum are somewhat predictable (the left dreams of such a regime), I'll put in my two cents and observe the right could learn something from this as well.
Consider our own gulag system that controls people's procreative activities and punishes them with harsh prison time: the "child support" enforcement system that routinely throws poverty stricken men into jail. It's a fine example of how chivalry has made western civilization suicidal: It attempts to reduce the number of children in poverty by punishing men for children born into poverty, but the control of whether a child is born rests with the mother. So a system that gives unwed mothers white glove treatment and rewards them for having children into poverty or getting divorced doesn't solve the problem but rather exacerbates it. Just as with communism, rather than reexamining their failed policies, many social conservatives simply double down and throw more and more men into prison for a reason similar to the Chinese and North Koreans: For engaging in procreative activities.
In either case, both of our societies are struggling with a way to control and provide for children.
PsychoDad| 5.6.12 @ 11:19AM
wtf?
POST American| 5.5.12 @ 6:44AM
----RED TERROR ---now becoming what it
always was, from Greece to California
------INTER-nationalist EUGENICS and USURY
---------------------'IN THE RED' TERROR-----------
--Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., BAR--Rockefeller
H. Obama -----CFR front ops one and all.
RED China handover of the economy,
the technology, even military technology.
---The scandal of our ports, Panama Canal
et al being surrendered is now well known.
RED Chinese soveriegnty now holds some
50 square miles due south of Boise.
DHS and TSA et al Constitution murdering
is now open for all to see.
Pelosi calling for police state ramp up
---from RED China.
---Ginzburg opening TREASON itself
in capstone 'RA---dick--all--ized' E--jipped.
RED China NOW emulating --OUR--
'SICK--CURE--IT--He' program by
passing their own NDAA 1021.
BOTH the US and RED China are
themselves following the suit of
'HUNGER GAMES' for REAL ---NORTH KOREA.
Hollywood and media, meanwhile, are
dutifully BURYING without a trace the
cosmically relevant 60th Anniversary
of the Globalism/ RED China and EUGENICS
'unfriendly' --
--------------------KOREAN WAR----------------------
-----Unfolding right here folks!
NO JOKE
----IN FACT, as it unfolds
----------------THERE ARE NO MORE JOKES.
NONE. . .
--------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012----------------
"Let's ALL DIE! --or LET's DO IT!"
-Thomas Carlysle
Needs an upgrade for
-----------------We are ALREADY DEAD!
-----------------------SO! -- LET'S GO FOR IT!
PsychoDad| 5.6.12 @ 11:20AM
Fer the luvva Christ, would you shut the ffkk up with your insane cut n paste rants?
Charles Van Dorn| 5.5.12 @ 2:32PM
Does Obama have intentions of creating an American Gulag, where millions of Whites are kept under the heal of Black and Hispanic tormentors? I think it possible. With Socialists, anything is, including a GULAG.
PsychoDad| 5.6.12 @ 11:21AM
Hmm,where's all our regular leftard trolls coming in to defend NK and berate us that it's OUR fault it's so bad?
POST American| 5.7.12 @ 4:06AM
----------------------FINAL WORD---------------------
EVEN just since Chrsitmas,
with Pelosi callling for a police state
from RED China, and NDAA 1021 passed,
North Korea is, incredibly, emerging
as downright avante garde!
SURELY ----while the TSA violates
you and your familiy, even the most utterly
'IT' bound can appreciate this!
---NORTH KOREA!
'Hunger Games' w/o the slick production
values ---and WAY more 'KNEE---O'!
Makes the authorized 'visions' of
Cameron and Ridley Scott look like
snow storms in a franchise slum paperweight
(---which, btw, they are).
----------------NORTH KOREA! ---yessss--!
-----IF ONLY they had CHEM--trails!
---AHHH, but who knows? ---thanks to stealth
U.N. black ops, paid for by US taxpayers
-----------MAYBE they DO?
-------------HUAC ---is NUREMBERG 2012---------