Kim Jong's World
Having just updated North Korea's Human Rights Report page, it strikes me how this nation seems perpetually stuck in neutral.North Korea achieved an important concession last October when the U.S. State Department officially removed them from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism. It was hoped that this would invigorate the stalemated six-party talks focused on North Korea's suspected attempts to enrich plutonium to weapons' grade. It looked as if North Korea was on the road to normalizing relations with the outside world, a process started in the 90's when the two Koreas had made diplomatic and commercial steps which gave many the impression that the peninsula was on its way to unification.
But North Korea, one of the world's last Cold War relics, remains perpetually paranoid and suspicious of the west, particularly the United States. Not that the fear is totally unfounded. While North and South Korea officially stopped fighting in 1953, a peace treaty has never been forged. Rather, the two nations have relied upon a cease-fire which effectively left the border militarized with about a million North Koreans, 500,000 South Koreans and 25,000 American soldiers still stationed near the border. It is amazing the, some 56 years later, the United States has as many soldiers prepared to do battle with North Korea as it has in Afghanistan right now. Add that to the fact that South Korea's new president is much more conservative and much less accommodating then the previous administration seemed only to harden North Korea's resolve to give the impression that they are still ready to resume the Cold War anytime.
Kim Jong-Il is often painted as a brutal dictator who starves his people while pursuing a nuclear arsenal. Famine claimed an estimated 2.5 and 3 million North Koreans between 1995 and 1998 and the threat of returning famine and crop loss due to flooding has plagued the nation these last few years. And South Korea's President Lee has taken a hard line stance, insisting that food aid from the South be directly linked to progress made in the nuclear disarmament of the North. Consider also that rumours have persisted that Kim Jong-Il had experienced a stroke last summer and even North Korean press has stated that Kim is "not in the best of health" suggests that the government is sending up trial baloons for the North Koreans to prepare for a life without Kim. As none of Kim's sons are natural successors as he was to his father Kim Sun-Il, evidenced by the fact that none stood for legislative elections last month, it could be that, like Cuba, the cult of personality is becoming yet another Cold War relic which will may not be sustainable for dictatorships of the future.
Which begs the question, who is really in charge of North Korea? Some reports suggest Chang Sung Taek, Kim-Jong-Il's brother-in-law and head of the secret police. If so, perhaps that can help explain why two American journalists have been detained for supposedly illegally crossing into North Korea to report on a growing refugee flight from North Korea to China. Add to that the official "strongly worded statement" from the UN Security Council for North Korea's rocket launch over Japan and it seems that any attempts to break out of isolation have thus far fallen victim to North Korea's fear of the outside world.
Kim may be ill but, his reemergence from isolation may show that, at least to the powers that be, the people of North Korea feel at ease living in Kim Jong's world, even if he makes the rest of the planet uncomfortable in what seems to be an endless replay of the 50's. Not the sock hops and bobby socks... the duck and cover part.
Labels: human rights, Kim Jong-Il, North Korea, Pax Gaea
posted by Dave Carroll @ 4/20/2009 08:49:00 PM
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