AN ENSLAVED STATE WHERE PRIVATE LIFE IS ABOLISHED

The Daily Mirror ^ | October 10, 2006 | Christopher Hitchens

[2ndDivisionVet]

NOT even in the lowest moments of the Third Reich, or of the gulag, or of Mao's "Great Leap Forward" was there a time when all the subjects of the system were actually enslaved.

In North Korea, every person is property and is owned by a small and mad family with hereditary power. Every minute of every day, as far as regimentation can assure the fact, is spent in absolute subjection and serfdom.

The private life has been entirely abolished. One tries to avoid cliche, and I did my best on a visit to this terrifying country in the year 2000, but George Orwell's 1984 was published at about the time that Kim Il-Sung set up his system, and it really is as if he got hold of an early copy of the novel and used it as a blueprint ("Hmmm - good book. Let's see if we can make it work").

Actually, North Korea is rather worse than Orwell's imagined world. There would be no way, in the capital city of Pyongyang, to wander off and get lost in the slums, let alone to rent an off-the-record love nest in a room over a shop.

Everybody in the city has to be at home and in bed by curfew time, when all the lights go off (if they haven't already failed).

A recent night-time photograph of the Korean peninsula from outer space shows something that no "free-world" propaganda could invent: a blaze of electric light all over the southern half, stopping exactly at the demilitarised zone and becoming an area of darkness in the north.

Concealed in that pitch-black night is an imploding state where the only things that work are the police and the armed forces. The situation is actually slightly worse than indentured servitude. The slave owner historically promises, in effect, at least to keep his slaves fed.

In North Korea, this compact has been broken. It is a famine state as well as a slave state. Partly because of the end of favourable trade relations with, and subsidies from, the former USSR, but mainly because of the lunacy of its command economy, North Korea broke down in the 1990s and lost an unguessable number of people to sheer starvation.

The survivors, especially the children, have been stunted and malformed. Even on a tightly controlled tour - North Korea is almost as hard to visit as it is to leave - my robotic guides couldn't prevent me from seeing people drinking from sewers and picking up grains of food from barren fields (I was reduced to eating a dog, and I was a privileged "guest").

Film shot from over the Chinese border shows whole towns ruined and abandoned. It seems mines in the north of the country have been flooded beyond repair.

Kim Jong-il and his fellow slave masters are trying to dictate the pace of events by setting a timetable of nuclearization, based on a crash program wrung from their human property. But why should it be assumed that their failed state and society are permanent? Another timeline, orientated to liberation and regime change, is what the dynasty most fears. It should start to fear it more.

[Dick Vomer]

NK would collect those packets, poison them, then re-drop them in another area for the people to die so they could use situation for propaganda.

GOOD CALL..that's exactly what they would do... the Washington Post and the ABCCBSNBC would call on an investigation of the military for dropping poisoned food... the airmen would be brought up on charges by some career minded legal officer and the trial would go forth calling Rove, Rumsfeld and Bush as co-conspiritors... finally the Dems would call for an investigation and hope to impeach Bush..

Not for the facts but for the "seriousness of the charges"

[Clintonfatigued]

This is a horriffic story. It's said that some 15% of the population has died from the famine. One would think that such a nation would implode and its government collapse. And in fact, I read that not too long ago, there was a coup attempt that was defeated only with some difficulty.

[lastchance]

I agree. The situation in North Korea is indeed horrific.

[stevie_d_64]

I believe it is only a matter of time...

Total collapse of North Korea is imminent, and the rightful burden and responsibility after that occurs will be on South Korea to save as many of their kin up north as possible...

If NK's intent is to stir up as much strife as possible in the international community with these missle shots and unconfirmed nuclear tests, to bring the same community to the table to garner subsidies and aid, it appears to not be working...

I think we need to stick to our guns, and not cave to unreasonable requests from the dictator in that country...

Sure there will be plenty more suffering, but the light at the end of that tunnel will shine brighter everyday he is still running that show...

Soon the people will rise up and take him and those who ride those coat-tails out, and SK is going to have to step up, suck it up and do what they know what they need to do...

As long as that NK nuclear technology goes the way of the Dodo, we may be ok, but I am not holding my breath...

Funny how its going though...We may not do a single thing in NK-ville...

But Iran knows it will not be a great leap for us to jump off on them when the time comes...

I'm just not very surprised by any of this...

[neverdem]

bfl

[Rurudyne]

Actually, the architecture might not be THAT horrible and wouldn't look too out of place (were it properly finished out) at a Disneyland or in Vegas.

But this much does compare to Hitler: when the allies at last inspected the bunker they found intricate city models were Europe's landmarks, notably opera houses, were replaced with new structures pleasing to Hitler.

Leaving some people with the distinct impression that it all might have been for nothing more than a distaste for European architecture.

But unlike Nazi Germany, NK has built huge edifices including a sports arena for the Seoul Games for the deluded dreams of their leader that the rest of the world will be so impressed by the effort that they WILL HAVE to come.

Sort of a horrific Field of Dreams ... only one where there is no corn, no grass, no trees and the dead people wandering around aren't –yet– dead.

Andersonville or the Trail of Tears on a national scale.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[kabar]

North Korea has 60 years of this totalitarian regime to overcome, and no matter how it is approached, it will be a long, hard slog. But if it's a 10-year process, it won't be done until 10 years have expired.

It will take some strong external influence/force or a total collapse of the society.

[kabar]

Most North Koreans that escape still revile the United States.

Source?

[Jason_b]

Creepy barely begins to describe that hotel. It would make a great set for the next Mad Max sequel. Maybe some day soon our F16s can use it for target practice.

[Jason_b]

"The slave owner historically promises, in effect, at least to keep his slaves fed. In North Korea, this compact has been broken. It is a famine state as well as a slave state. "

If N.K. was a slave state, as it may have been at one time, they'd have plantations, factories, and people working them. I don't see anyone working. Probably famine state is the most apt description. Command economy? It doesn't seem to be a command economy anymore. More like an atrophe economy.

[Hardastarboard]

And here I thought this thread was about Massachussetts.

[NRA2BFree]

LOL! You're soooo bad. ;o)

[SampleMan]

Source?

North Korean defectors/escapees.

Would it help the believability value for you if I could find "documentation" on the Internet? I might be able to do that if you think I'm making this up.

Most if not all North Koreans that escape to China do so out of fear and hunger. This does not translate into a love for something else. Just as escaping a bear's den doesn't translate into you running with open arms into a pack of wolves.

They have some sense that they have been lied to, but have no comprehension of how completely they have been programmed.

North Koreans that have been brought immediately to the South have been known to flee in terror, hide under beds, etc. at being introduced to Americans. Given what they've been taught, this isn't surprising. If you were taught everyday of your life that all dogs were vicious killers, and you never had a shred of contrary information presented, how would you react to coming face to face with a dog?

[SampleMan]

Most North Koreans that escape still revile the United States.

This only applies to initial reactions. I did not intend to imply that they continue to hate Americans forever.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Having served two tours in Korea, I can say that Mr. Hitchens understates the problem. Since Kim Jung Il is probably testing his missiles and nuclear weapons as a proxy for Iran, this is a bigger problem than most think."

Yes. And don't forget their various proxies in the "peace" movement right here in the U.S. of A, and around the world. Every time there's a rally or protest somewhere, note the professionally-printed signs and placards (always in English, no matter where the protest takes place) with the logos of "A.N.S.W.E.R." and its parent organization, the Workers World Party. Who they are: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5802.

Frightening stuff.

[kabar]

Would it help the believability value for you if I could find "documentation" on the Internet? I might be able to do that if you think I'm making this up.

You must have obtained this "information" from somewhere. I was just interested in where it came from. Anecdotal? Formal study? Personal knowledge?

[jordan8]

We really bombed the hell out of North Korea during the Korean Police Action (which we were unwilling to do to North Vietnam ten years later), it doesn't take much to get the population to hate us. I've read books about Americans in Soviet Prisons who had a hard time from the Korean inmates.

[gonzo]

***It will take some strong external influence/force or a total collapse of the society.***

I'd bet on internal collapse. Extended starvation will lead to a breakdown of services needed to just maintain their existance, and they're almost there now.

Of approx 23,000,000 souls, half of them could simply lay down and die, then be eaten by the other half. Survival for a few days or weeks, then start again.

Meanwhile, the monsters in charge will stay as crazy as ever. When they're down to about 6,000,000 souls, South Korea can care for them, if they want to.

China doesn't seem to care, and NK is their bastard stepchild. My opinion is to let them, NK, commit suicide/genocide on themselves. We, the USA, should stay out of it!

Unless, of course, George Clooney and the rest of the Hollywierd-Liberal-Lefties decide to buy a lot of food, WITH THEIR OWN MONEY, and pay for the shipping, WITH THEIR OWN MONEY, and then arrange and pay for the distribution, WITH THEIR OWN MONEY, then I'll agree to that plan!

Since we, The USA, are technically still at war with North Korea, our TAX dollars should be used to defeat them - not feed them!................FRegards

[endthematrix]

I recall that many living in the USSR had lived so long fearing the USA that they harbor resentment. So it understandable that N Koreans feel the same.