The North Korean Conditions

Every morning, I have food to eat. Every morning, I have water to drink. Every morning, I have clothes to wear. In this world, I am expected to live until I'm eighty, ninety, or even to a hundred years old, yet the reality that there is an entire nation that live entirely opposite, short lives shocks me. It shocks the world, if they are compassionate enough to open their eyes. The North Korean people, the people who have been forcibly dragged and born into their poor country, these are the ones whose realities are those that are the conflicts and plots of Hollywood movies. We can watch these movies because a small part of ourselves know that the characters are fiction, and we know that the conditions displayed before our very eyes cannot be in the slightest true.

But why can I hear their cries of pain and sadness around me?

Hazel Smith, the author of the scholarly article CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?, explains that we know "much less about the status of civil and political rights" (132), meaning that the world knows very little about the level, or degree, of rights that belong to the people of North Korea. Concerning health, food, and nutrition, however, Smith argues that, thanks to the United Nations agencies that work in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, there have been "over four-and-a-half thousand reports on aspects of DPRK society" (133). The world can finally have a look into the well-being of the North Korean people; however, this does not automatically assume that the people are all healthy and are eating nutritious meals. In fact, a report given by Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman to the UN Human Rights Council states the complete opposite. Smith quotes Darusman by saying that the "Annex to the report makes the factual claim that the health and nutrition status of the population is exceptionally poor" (134). Every morning, I have food to eat. Every morning, I have water to drink. But every morning, these people have nothing.

Within the confines of what the UN knows officially (documents, reports, analyses, etc.), there may not be many violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The regime keeps a very tight leash on that information; in fact, they lie to the world about the conditions within their borders. But, why? A boy only keeps the fact that he stole twenty dollars from his mother a secret because he fears two things: he knows something is wrong, and he knows if his mother finds out, he will be punished. In this case, the Kim Dynasty knows very well that they are doing something very, very wrong. The Kim Dynasty also knows very well that if the world knows officially that they have stripped their people of their rights, then their crimes will not go unpunished.

Refugees such as Joseph Kim, Hyeon-seo Lee, and Dong-hyuk Shin all have shared their stories concerning the conditions of North Korea, along with many others rescued by a non-profit, non-government organization, Liberty in North Korea, who seek to rescue those who have escaped North Korea into China's borders. Shin, author of the famous book Camp 14, writes about his time in North Korean concentration camp Camp 14. He explains that he had spent his entire life up to his escape in the camp being tortured and beaten. Catherine E. Shoichet and Madison Park, authors on CNN, co-wrote an article that focused on the refugee's inaccuracies about his time in North Korea. While I may find the argument that his testimony is invalid now, his admittances are still inhumane and cruel concerning the treatment he received from the North Koreans. In Camp 18, a concentration camp, Shin says that that's where "he witnessed authorities execute his mother and brother" (Shoichet and Park). Also, he explains that instead of his finger being chopped off by one of the prison guards, it was actually "mangled as a guard pulled out his fingernails as a punishment for escaping" (Shoichet and Park). The cruelty and monstrosity of the North Korean government remain as inhumane as his book states, as well as the testimonies of every other North Korean refugee.

The conditions of North Korea may be politically average or mediocre, but the people of the North Korean totalitarian state have voiced their stories. Although they may come from different backgrounds, such as a higher class, a lower class, in prison, or as a child born from sex trafficking, there remains one common pattern: North Korea is a country that has stripped the rights of its people, make them suffer, and have lied continuously to the world about their wrongdoings.

We must stand up.

We must fight.

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Works Cited:

1. Shoichet, Catherine E., and Madison Park. "North Korean Prison Camp Survivor
          Changes Story." CNN. Cable News Network, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

The North Korean Regime

The government of a country dictates what kind of freedoms and allowances of the usage of basic human rights are accepted in its country. The United States of America has a democratic republic, meaning that the population vote on candidates that represent their ideas and opinions on a city, district, state, and national level. This means that the people have a major freedom of speech in what gets established in the laws and legislature. Britain has a constitutional monarchy, meaning that the power and influence the monarch has over his or her country is limited to a pre-written official document that strictly prohibits the monarch abusing his or her power. A country that has a dictatorship will strip away the rights of its nation, and that nation will suffer greatly.

To be politically correct, North Korea is officially the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. By its name, North Korea is a democratic republic, with the ruling party being the only party. North Korea is also a socialist state. Bruce Klingner, author of the academic literature North Korea Heading for the Abyss, explains that, if anything, the government of North Korea remained to be "identical to general secretary Kim Jong-Il in ideology, leadership, personality, and courage" (173). In other words, the North Korean regime introduced and implemented by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, the regime that restricted all rights of any kind, is still completely the same, meaning that the freedom of the North Korean people remain to be nonexistent. Klingner argues that the state remains to be "vigorously eliminating any alien ideology from abroad" (173). Alien ideologies include free trade, freedom of speech, and others.

As a result of the "democratic republic" type of government that North Korea maintains, basic human rights are stripped from the North Korean people. The country suffers because "the regime's resistance to economic reforms. . . [leads] to abysmal performance" (Klinger 178). The country suffers because the regime's inability to allow freedom in even their strict and controlled economic policies leads to a very inefficient economy. Every transaction is controlled, limited, and approved by the government, therefore, there is no tolerance for creativity or freedom of ideas to proactively improve the economy. With a poor economy comes a poor state, and with a poor state comes a poor people.

Every outcome of a socialist dictatorship remains the same: no progress, no change, and no rights. The state becomes stagnant and stale. The government becomes toxic. The people become victims. Joseph Kim, a refugee and author of an article adapted by his book Under the Same Sky, tells his heart-wrenching story of the painful famine he had endured in North Korea. During the famine in North Korea from 1994 to 1998, Joseph Kim writes that "there were days when all we had to eat was a handful of wild mushrooms in water" (Kim). Later, when he explains that his mother, his sister, and him all traveled to his maternal grandmother's house, Joseph Kim writes that his family ate at a restaurant where rumors teased that some travelers would be kidnapped by the owners of said restaurant and killed for their meat to be brewed in with their soups. He admits that, in North Korea, "there was no authority to consult if you'd consume a human being or not" (Kim). In a country where the people are not the priority, testimonies such as Joseph Kim's shed light on the realities of the tyrannical territory of North Korea.

In the end, a government that enforces a strict dictatorship results in a suffering people. North Korea, as a result of never-ending tyranny, remains to be a "train [that] could conceivably slow down (due to unforeseen factors) or it could derail, causing enormous damage to itself and its surroundings" (Klingner 180). Without a transformation, North Korea will suffer; the leaders, and the people.

***

Works Cited:

1. Kim, Joseph. "Desperate times during the Famine in North Korea."Ideastedcom. N.p.,
          03 June 2015. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

2. Klingner, Bruce. "North Korea Heading For The Abyss." Washington Quarterly 37.3
          (2014): 169-182. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

Liberty in North Korea: The Human Rights Crisis

Every morning, there is a routine that you and I go through:

Wake up, shower, put on clothes (unless you sleep with socks and shirts on), eat, and venture into the day with a mission in mind, whether it be to pass that exam, finish that office project, or to simply get through the day in three or less pieces.

But somewhere else, in a whole different world, there is a different routine every morning that people go through:

Wake up, eat what little ration is found, work, work, work, work, and get beaten to death. 

This cruel world isn't just another fantasy, another novel; unfortunately, this world is real.

This world is called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or in layman's terms, North Korea.

Every human being is born with basic rights, such as the freedom to speak, the right to be treated as equal as the person to our left and right, and the right to our own life. In the United States, or in Britain, France, or even Canada, we the People of the States are allowed our basic human rights unless certain laws are broken, and those tried and persecuted lose several human rights. For example, if I were to steal your car, and the judge and jury of a courtroom were to agree that I was at fault for stealing your car, I would lose certain rights, such as the freedom to live my own life separate from a jail cell, for as long as the verdict rules (ten or twenty years, etc.).

In North Korea, no one is given the chance to practice their basic rights.

In North Korea, no one has basic rights.

In North Korea, no one is considered as a human being.

This, being an enemy of human rights, is considered as a social justice issue, or an issue in which a specific group of peoples or creatures of nature are threatened by a force that is caused by other groups of peoples or creatures of nature.

In this case, the North Korean people were, and are, being threatened by the North Korean regime and the Kim Dynasty every day. Men, women, children, and infants alike suffer for practicing their basic human rights. There are no "slaps on the wrists". There is only torture, slavery, and long-suffering.

There must be liberty in North Korea today so that there can be peace tomorrow.

"For Those Who Can't Speak"

The body of a young emaciated child lays lifeless on the cold, hard ground. His mother was shot multiple times in the head for stealing food to feed her child, and the father passed away from severe torturing that were induced by prior attempted escapades. The daughter of a man whose family was sentenced to imprisonment at a concentration camp for treason is taken advantage of by the soldiers and guardsmen that whip and beat "slacking" workers. This is the sobering picture of North Korea.

Though cruel and inhumane, who can stop the soldiers?

Who can help the prisoners?

Who can speak for those who can't?

Tenth Avenue North, a Christian band, wrote and recorded a song called, "For Those Who Can't Speak" that featured rappers Derek Minor and KB. Although originally intended to spread awareness and to fight human trafficking, the song still contains elements that support the idea of fighting those who threaten and/or steal basic human rights from people just like you and me, and especially the people of North Korea who are daily fighting the struggles of finding their stolen human rights.

One element of the song is its use of metaphors. In the chorus, lead singer Mike Donehey sings, "I have dreamed of a kingdom coming where evil drowns in mercy streams; I want to see those rivers of justice". Water, representing life and freedom, will eventually "drown" the evil in this world that taunt and torture the voiceless people of North Korea. But just as Martin Luther King, Jr. once had a dream, the "kingdom coming" can only be made true if you and I stopped dreaming, and started acting. The citizens under the oppression of the North Korean regime can only be rescued if we speak up, because the government has taken away their voices.

In Genesis, the first book of the Christian Holy bible, God had created a world that was perfect and beautiful in every manner. Animals were roaming free and peacefully, while the two humans, Adam and Eve, were the gentle, but adequate, caretakers. This was the "picture the Lord painted in Genesis", according to the song. There are people suffering in a land far away, children are dying of starvation, females are taken advantage of, and men are laboring until their backs break, and then some more. Concentration camps of the 1930s and 1940s do not compare to the camps of North Korea. In Genesis, God did not paint a picture of slaves, inequality, malnutrition, and sexual abuse. The song "For Those Who Can't Speak" is simply a song that explains to its audience that we need to restore the picture that "the Lord painted in Genesis", regardless of our individual religions or missions. There was a different picture in Genesis, and there is a different picture in North Korea. We must speak for those who can't speak.

A social justice issue is a situation where there are victims (whether it be humans or animals) of injustices that include, but are not limited, to lack of human rights, unfair treatment, discrimination, and more. The people of North Korea are crying out to the world that they need justice for the theft of their basic human rights; but, to the leaders and government of North Korea, their world is contained within a small jail cell, an execution pole, a casket six feet under, or an interrogation room. We need to do something. We need to take action.

We need to speak for those who can't speak.