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
Posted on 03/15/2003 3:51:55 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Dear comrade company commander Huh Chol-Ho,
How are you, comrade company commander ? I am Kim Chol-Min, the former targeter of artillery No. 8 under your command, who lived through good and bad times with you. A lot of time has passed since I saw you last time in October, 1995. Seven years to be exact. I am now in S. Korea. I really doubt that this letter I am writing at an apartment in a street of Seoul will reach you but I still want to share my feelings with you now.
On the day when we went out for 25 mile march, me carrying a 82mm mortar tube which is taller than me, at the young age of seventeen, you told me, "Chol-Min, it will be tough but you must prevail. Military service is a hard work but isn't it rewarding and honorable ?" No fancy rhetoric in your encouragement, but it remained as my motto for 10 years and 3 months of my service. The reward and honor, they were really what I wanted to get for all my life. Intangible and untouchable, still they were what all guys in my hometown, including me, were eager for in return for sacrificing our youth.
As you know, I literally dedicated my entire youth for that goal and finally became a party member, and the chairman of Socialist Worker's Youth League at my company. I was awarded 9 medals, which I proudly pinned on my chest. I was overjoyed. I cannot forget my trip back home wearing all those medals. I felt as if I were having all the glories in the world. Until I saw myself and my neighors surviving on grass gruel.
Had you heard anbody starved to death ? Now it is commonplace but back in April, '94, I could not believe what I was hearing. How would you feel about your childhood buddies dying like that ? I could no longer tell where the reality ends and the nightmare starts. I lived in Northern Hwang-Hae Province, the breadbasket of the nation. Still if you went out to the local train station, there were countless kids begging for foods, who were homeless or abandoned. And old folks abandoned by their children.
In spring '95, I met a dying seventeen year old girl in front of the train station, who pleaded me to bring her to where she could not be spotted by others. She believed that people would see all fleas crawling out of her body when she dies, the though of which caused her unbearable shame. I was cursing myself, while granting her wishes and blurting to her what the hell was with her shame now that she was dying. It was driving me mad. I thought that the history was moving backwards, and that the human civilization was in full retreat.
The honor and reward you drilled into my mind suddenly sounded as worthless as those fleas. It is worthwhile to be remembered and honored by those in your society but the honor over there is about serving Kim Jong-Il who is another ordinary human being like me. It would be absolutely of no use for saving me and my brothers who were starving. I would have gladly traded my party membership card and medals if it could bring a mere spoonful of food to them.
You would not believe me if I tell you that I came to Seoul after 10 years of successful military service and a college education just because I was hungry. But you would if I tell you that I could no longer bear watching all those starving people. It was really true. Watching people starving to death and frozen to death. It was too much. That is why I came down to the south. I have no regrets. I feel sorry about leaving behind those beloved folks back home. But I will redouble myself, working hard and sweating more until I go back and stand proud before my folks back home. I will live every trying day of my life here this way. Next time, I hope to write about details of my everyday life down here. Untile the day I will see you again, please be well.
Sincerely,
former targeter of artillery No. 8, Kim Chol-Min
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
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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