Korea: A former N. Korean soldier writes to his company commander (Gripping Tale)

N. Korean defectors' Association ^ | Jan., 2003 | Kim Chol-Min

[MeekOneGOP]

Mark Steyn (click below for entire article):

Take a look at a satellite picture of the peninsula by night: South Korea ablaze in electric light, the North in darkness. In Far East Asia, North Korea’s the hole in the doughnut.

North Korea at Night

[Jonathon Spectre]

All the sadness of the world ping.

[MeekOneGOP]

A short letter, and a worthy read, imho. . .


Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[OahuBreeze]

MeeknMing,

Worry not! NK will glow much more vibrantly on the satellite picture pretty soon.

[gulfcoast6]

Lets see now, didn't someone say 'one at a time'?

[Texas_Jarhead]

interesting and sad. thanks

[MeekOneGOP]

Hmm? You reckon they'll have sizzlin' and glowin' personalities? . . .

[rimmont]

"North Korea is not a country... it's a cult!!"

Very true! Unfortunately cults have a nasty tendency to go out with a bang when they come under pressure from the outside world, witness Peoples Temple, Branch Davidians, etc.

[solzhenitsyn]

I have no desire to see NK "glow", if you mean that it will glow from a nuclear attack. I wish no harm at all to the starving masses of North Korea; have nothing but sympathy for them. If an opportunity arose to liberate them in a way that would be economical in terms of human life, I'd probably favor it.

[maro]

1. Communism always screws up the economy.
2. Kim Jong Il thinks he is the world's expert on everything (no one around him dares disagree); he concocted an agricultural policy with really quite specific instructions to the farmers (though I doubt he has even gardened); everyone followed instructions to the letter; famine followed.
3. There have been some natural disasters, such as droughts.
4. What food there is, is reserved for the army.

The story told is just the tip of the iceberg. Desperate families have sold their daughters into prostitution. People subsist on tree bark and boiled grass. The human suffering is beyond measure. Think of Auschwitz made into a country. That is the true face of communism.

[The Shrew]

Read Herodotus. Read the Bible. Xerxes was pretty successful. When you thik about it, David and Solomon were dictators. Read Thucydides. Full of dictators. That was pretty much the way it was done back then.

I have to respectfully disagree with a part of your assertion. I believe there is a vast difference between Xerxes and David and Solomon. The Kings of Israel were answerable to God. They knew that and were held accountable to that authority by the prophets Samuel and Nathan. Whether you are a Christian or Jew or not that accountability - either real or perceived - makes them something far different than a dictator.

Dictators are accountable to nothing and No one but POWER!

Regards,

TS

[gcruse]

Successful dictatorship? I wonder if Napoleonic France was any worse than post-revolutionary France? I don't know if the definition of dictatorship would extend to the early days of Communist China, but if it did, the country was finally able to feed itself after generations of failure to do so. Other than that, I can't think of any.

[McGavin999]

That's a heartbreaking story, thank you for translating it for us. What really makes me mad is there is no reason for those people to be starving. The line between North and South Korea is an imaginary line. The only thing that make it different is the leaders.

So much aid has been sent and ended up in the wrong hands, allowing hungry people to starve. Just when is it going to end?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #15

I could adopt the term "Freepranslation".:) As for those so-called human rights group, I doubt that they will show any interest on your request.

There are two human rights groups in S. Korea. The left wing one is more interested in "American and S. Korean atrocities". They would rather send human shields to Baghdad than raising concerns on N. Korean human rights. Even French are more likely to take up on N. Korean human rights than these losers. Then, there are conservative groups, usually sponsored by church charities. They do most of human rights monitoring on N. Korea. I think that Norbert Vollertsen works with these people. The left wing is busy painting Vollertsen as a publicity hound.

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #16

It is not even successful at creating bargaining chips for S. Korea. The only upside is that it could compeltely corrupt N. Korean regime at some point, which could trigger its dissolution. But that is not even guaranteed. N. Korea can turn around and bite S. Korea just like Palestinian Authority did after long appeasement from Israelis, before they crumble away.

There is not much quid pro quo going on here. It is more like a tribute. This is like Huns taking tributes from Byzantine Empire, or Xiongnu from Han Dynasty of China.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #20

During Mao's days, China was poorer than N. Korea. N. Korea has been regressing since then while China has been making strides. Kim Il-Sung's obession with his eternal glory turned the entire country into a den of incompetent servile ideologues.

[IronJack]

Then this is the paradigm of communism reprised, the same blight that has afflicted everything it's touched. One more lesson for the unheeding Left.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Sawdring]

Thanks for the translation. Great article, too bad no one in N. Korea has the internet except the top guy in the zipper suit.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks. I am sure that's true. China has made progress. Not so NK. bttt . . .