Joseph Kim: reddit and TED Talk

Going back to this blog’s Korean roots, I want to share the story of Joseph Kim, a North Korean man who defected from North Korea and ended up living in the U.S. with a foster family with the help of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK). Joseph recently shared his story on a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) that can be found here:

Joseph Kim reddit AMA

His story is a harrowing look into what it’s like living in North Korea and the challenges of trying to live a new life after defecting from the country. Contrary to what one may find in a book, Joseph details a lot of the little things about being a North Korean defector that many people might not be aware of. For anyone with an interest in North Korea, personal anecdotes or just a really engaging story, I recommend checking out his AMA. There are a lot of interesting vignettes in there that even I (somewhat of a Korea specialist) found enlightening.

He also has a TED Talk, which goes into a little bit more detail about his full story on defecting and includes some more information about his family that he doesn’t answer in his AMA. You can check it out here:

TED Talk

For anyone interested in helping out people like Joseph or for those who just want to know more about the work that Liberty in North Korea does, check out their website here. They work for a great cause, and I’m sure they could use the support.

Thanks for reading. Until next time.

Traveling vs. Living

Whenever I travel, I apparently travel with rose-tinted glasses. Pretty much everywhere I go, I love, and I usually find nothing wrong with it. Which is fine with me. It basically means I always thoroughly enjoy my travels. The problem comes when I visit a place and later have to live in that place.

The first time this happened to me was when I visited Japan back in 2008 for a short school trip. Up until this time, I was completely enamored with Japan. I loved everything about Japan, and I thought I understood what Japan was really like.

Later, in 2011, the final semester of my undergraduate years, I studied abroad in Japan. That was when I first realized that living somewhere is considerably different than simply visiting somewhere. I started finding a lot of things different and foreign to me about Japan that I thought I had known about before. It was quite the shock.

I am currently doing an internship in Washington D.C. and am experiencing the same phenomenon. I have been to D.C. three times in the past. Each time was a short trip; four days or less. And each time, I loved it. I don’t want to say I don’t like it now, but since I’m not actually visiting for a short period of time, I am beginning to see some things that are different than I thought they were.

For one, D.C. is actually really cold. I’m from the northern U.S., where it’s cold and snowy. I’ve also spent time in Korea and Japan, both of which can get quite cold and windy, so I’m used to the weather. Maybe I have always traveled to D.C. during warmer years, but it is cold here. Just the other day, we had 20+ mph winds. It was ridiculous. I wasn’t expecting balmy weather in D.C. in February, but I just wasn’t expecting it to be this cold either.

It’s also much dirtier than I remember it being. I should realize by now that most big cities get pretty dirty, especially in the U.S., but I guess I never learn. The last place I visited was New York City, so maybe I was comparing it to that, which I absolutely hated (one of my few travels I did not enjoy as much as I thought I would).

I guess the big point of this whole post is that it’s difficult to really get to know a place until you’ve spent a considerable amount of time there. Just visiting a place for a short period of time does not give a full picture of what that city is actually like.

Apart from living in a city, I think the best way to get a feel for what a city is really like is by spending time with locals and doing things as locals do. I think this is one of the reasons why I have such a good understanding of Korea and Korean culture. I spent a lot of time with actual Koreans, doing things Koreans do and living like an actual Korean. While I will never be Korean, I think I came about as close as I can get to really understanding their culture by living like the locals. Spending a year in Korea certainly also helped. I do realize that in certain scenarios, this is probably pretty difficult to accomplish, though.

Without such a stark language and cultural barrier that exists in Korea, I think this task will be much easier in D.C. Unfortunately, I will only be spending about two months here, which is a somewhat short amount of time. Most of this time will be spent in a routine, as well: going to work, coming home, going to the grocery store. It’s going to be quite regimented, so I may not get much of a chance to actually go out and see how the city functions. I hope I will eventually get the chance, though, because I think it will give me a much fuller and realistic experience while I am here.

Comments? Questions? Rants? Write them down below.

North Korea’s Collapse

I’ve been reading and writing a lot about North Korea. For one of my final papers this term, I actually chose to write about North Korea’s collapse. I think this is an interesting topic because, like China, people keep speculating when the collapse is going to happen. Pundits make it seem as if it’s a forgone conclusion that the North Korean regime will collapse without even considering that it may never collapse. Since I have been studying North Korea, I have come to a firmer conclusion about what the outcome on North Korea will be. My assertion is that it won’t ever collapse, barring a few circumstances.

There are basically three ways in which a regime can collapse:

1. politically

2. externally

3. economically

Politically speaking, a regime can collapse through an internal coup or a revolution. Very rarely does a regime change just because people want a change. Usually, a more dramatic event needs to occur in order for a regime to change politically.

Revolution is basically never going to happen in North Korea. With a standing military of one million, a revolution would quickly be suppressed. Even more important than that are the controls that the Kim regime uses to suppress the people. The masses are basically on constant watch by the government and by their neighbors. There are rules put in place so people cannot speak ill of the regime, and travel is also restricted. Essentially, the North Korean government controls every part of every person’s life. There is no possible way a group of people could coalesce into a group to start a revolution.

A coup is much more practical yet still improbable. So long as the Kim family provides for the military and other political leaders, they have no reason for a coup. If they are being fed and live good lifestyles, what would their impetus be to start a coup? Additionally, Kim Jong-Un also keeps a watchful eye on military and political personnel. If he suspects a coup, he will depose anybody he thinks poses a threat to him. This has been shown in the past when he even removed his uncle and a number of other high level party members from office. One can only expect they are now either doing hard labor or are dead.

An external attack against North Korea is also unlikely. The reason this is is because nobody really wants North Korea to collapse. Nobody benefits enough from it. Certainly, South Korean citizens would want to reunite with their families, but the government has no incentive to take any aggressive action against North Korea, so from a state’s standpoint, a conflict is undesirable. The DPRK may talk big, but it rarely ever does anything. In that sense, North Korea existing doesn’t really pose a threat to any of the regional states in the area, or even the United States. Thus, why would anybody want to spend resources to try and topple a regime that poses no legitimate threat to anyone else?

If North Korea were to collapse, I think many people assume it would happen economically. The North Korean economy has been stagnant for the past twenty years, and it is receiving less and less aid from countries like China and Russia, while it keeps suffering harsher and harsher sanctions against it by the U.N. and other countries.

The problem with thinking North Korea will collapse economically is that this viewpoint assumes North Korea cares about its people. I’m not an economist, but North Korea’s economy still seems to be running just fine one way or another. Even if the economy were to fail as it has done in the past, North Korea will simply do what it has always done. It will secure food for those people who are important to the regime’s survival while letting everyone fend for themselves. In essence, they will simply let people die until the point that there is enough food to feed everyone.

For example, let’s assume there are twenty million people in North Korea. The regime currently has enough food to feed twenty million people. Some sort of crisis happens, and the regime now only has enough food to feed fifteen million people. Barring any sort of external aid, North Korea will just let five million people die until the population is low enough that it can feed the whole population. North Korea isn’t concerned about the loss of those five million people. North Korea is concerned with maintaining the status quo of the country.

With that said, what could cause the North Korean regime to collapse? I think there are two possibilities that could cause this.

The first is if North Korea continues to provoke other states and goes too far. Currently, North Korea only causes minimal damage to other states, particularly South Korea. This, in itself, is not enough to justify a war against North Korea. As I said before, South Korea, or any other nation, for that matter, is not interested in warring with North Korea anyway. It would be too costly, especially considering North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. Thus, unless North Korea pushes too far and acts too belligerently, nobody is going to interfere with what North Korea does.

Secondly, the regime can collapse during a time of weakness. For instance, a coup is much more likely after the death of Kim Jong-Un, or as the world saw just recently, if Kim Jong-Un is hospitalized. A scenario like this, though, is much more arbitrary and is hard to predict. These points of weakness, though, provide an opportunity for opponents of the Kim family to gain power. I still think it is fairly unlikely because high ranking officials probably don’t need to change the regime since they already have a considerable amount of power, and they are watched very carefully.

All things considered, I don’t see an overarching reason as to why North Korea would collapse. It has moved along its current path just fine for the past sixty years, and it doesn’t seem like change is imminent. Certainly, I hope I am wrong, though, especially for the benefit of the North Korean people.

North Korea: Nothing to Envy

I am currently taking a class called Communist Asia. The content of the class is exactly as it sounds. We read about and discuss communist regimes that exist in Asia. Our main points of focus are China, North Korea and Vietnam. Thus far, we have discussed China and are currently working through a book about North Korea. The book is titled Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick.

The book title is derived from a North Korean song that everybody who lives in the regime knows. It is about how North Korea has nothing to envy about the rest of the world. North Korea needs to stand tall and proud and continue “thriving” through its communist ideologies. To be honest, the song has a nice ring to it, and quaint accompanying videos, most likely recorded in Pyongyang, can be found on YouTube, which emulate the lovely audibles to the song.

Everybody but insulated North Koreans know the stark contrast between their song and the reality of the situation, though. Granted, since North Korea is the largest kept secret in the world, it’s difficult for the rest of the world to know what goes on inside their walls, short of North Korean defectors and people who have rare connections with those inside North Korea. The stories all bare a grim similarity, though: labor camps, starvation and poor living conditions that plague the residents.

With so much inhumanity within the country, it’s a wonder how many people are actually even left alive there. After the North Korean famine in the 1990s, in which an estimated 10% of the population died, it appears that conditions have gotten at least somewhat better, though that isn’t saying much considering the already low living standards that were present in the country.

My question is, why hasn’t anything been done to actually help the country beyond humanitarian aid? Is it because of a lack of sympathy, or is it because of a fear of repercussions from North Korea? Maybe the rest of the world just doesn’t see a benefit to helping a country that has no foreseeable growth in the future.

It’s most likely that a matter of getting involved in North Korea beyond humanitarian aid would basically mean war. North Korea spends 25% of its GDP annually on its military budget, doing basically nothing with it. For any country to intervene in North Korea’s sovereignty would risk suffering a lot of casualties because North Korea would fight back militarily if another country tried to interfere in its sovereignty. The difficulties of this are compounded because of North Korea’s store of nuclear weapons.

But when does the world decide enough is enough and try to peek into North Korea’s borders? When do humanitarian atrocities overrule a country’s sovereignty? I think it is definitely past that point. There isn’t much communism left in the world today, which North Korea is clearly aware of. Even if communism is a possibly successful political system, it sure isn’t working for North Korea.

It’s my assumption that the North Korean leaders are too prideful to ever admit that communism isn’t the correct form of government for them, or Kim Il-sung forbid, their leaders are not the correct people for the job. To me, that is what this all boils down to: pride. They are too prideful to change a failing system for the betterment of their people, which is probably one of the saddest reasons possible to refuse to make a change.

It’s clear in their constant propaganda and education, they act as if they are still at war. Half of their educational material involves killing Americans. They can’t just change their stance on America and the rest of the world now. If they did, it would crush their pride and show weakness to their citizens and the rest of the world. Thus, nothing changes. The ruling powers maintain their same stances, and life goes on as usual.

Another unintended consequence of North Korea changing its current system could be the leaders losing their power. North Korea has long since fostered an environment of neighbor vs. neighbor. If a change in the current political system were to take place, the power structure in North Korea would shift. Different people might come into power, and many others may lose their current power. This is even more so true if other countries were to intervene in North Korea’s sovereignty. There’s no way a foreign intervention would allow Kim Jong-un to maintain his power.

Thus, with no internal or external incentives for North Korea to change, how would change come about? From the great words of Mao Zedong: revolution. A revolution within North Korea seems to be the only way to change the existing the regime. What makes this so difficult is the tight control that the leaders have over the people in North Korea. As is noted in Nothing to Envy, people are often thrown into labor camps for even minor offenses. People can be executed just for cracking a joke about the height of Kim Jong-un or his predecessors. All media from the outside world is blocked, and if anybody is caught trying to access it, there are serious consequences.

There are so many internal devices used to maintain this restriction of media, as well. They have inminbangs, which are community “watchkeepers” that are supposed to report any sort of slight against the regime. There are also government officials who have specific jobs just to catch enemies of the state: For instance, there are officials who go around and inspect the televisions in peoples’ homes to see if they are wired to watch South Korean or Chinese television.

The people themselves are the most suspicious, though. Being a North Korean citizen never offers any sort of reprieve. Your neighbor, best friend co-worker or even spouse, may be a government spy. Even if they aren’t spies, many people are so indoctrinated into the system that they would think any sort of disrespect against the regime is blasphemous and may report a person. They truly believe in the glory of the North Korean system! And one can’t blame them, to be honest. They are taught to love it and cherish it from a very young age.

Nobody is immune to this indoctrination, but the educated have a way to break away from it. It is a bit of a double-edged sword. North Korea needs bright young people to educate themselves and lead the future in North Korea, but at the same time, by doing this, they are giving people the knowledge to defect against the regime. As I said before, it’s difficult to do but definitely possible. So, by educating people to further the growth of the country,they are, in a sense, educating them about how much better the outside world is compared to North Korea.

So, the educated learn that, in truth, the rest of the world has nothing to envy about North Korea, so they defect. Certainly, there are some that stay. By getting a good education and working up through the system in North Korea, it’s possible to have a good life there. And, those that do stay have no incentive to topple the current regime. It provides a good life for their family.

Thus, how is revolution even possible? It may never be. Maybe the rest of the world is simply waiting for the moment when North Korea collapses upon itself. Once that happens, North Korea would have nowhere else to turn than the rest of the world for help. That’s assuming the rest of the world doesn’t come knocking first, looking to change the hostile authoritarian regime that has existed in North Korea since 1953.