north korea – Pike & Hurricane

Of brain drain, K-Pop, and other threats at the inter-Korean border

Maya Diekmann — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 09:36:54 +0000

The mayor of Daeseong-dong is concerned. His village is facing an existential threat: The young are leaving increasingly for bigger cities, where they can make twice as much money as through the work in the surrounding rice fields. Barely anyone moves to the village from the outside. Barely anyone can move to the village from the outside. There are strict rules: Only those who have lived in Daeseong-dong before 1950, and their descendants, may live here. Women, who marry villagers, may move in, but not vice versa. Outsiders need to be invited to visit the village and apply for military escorts two weeks in advance. They are, after all, approaching one of the world’s most heavily guarded borders. They are entering the 한반도 비무장 지대; the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the Korean Peninsula.

Broadcasting warfare

Daeseong-dong is one of two official “peace villages” inside the Korean DMZ and it might be the only one that is inhabited. The North Korean pendant, Kijŏng-dong, despite its wealthy and neat appearance from afar, is not actually a place where any North Koreans live. Much like what the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin (Stalinallee back in the day) was to the GDR during the Cold War, Kijŏng-dong is little more than a propaganda tool––a flagship village with colourful houses that couldn’t be further removed from the day-to-day reality of most North Koreans. For a majority of time since the end of the Korean War, the imagery has been accompanied by broadcasts of propaganda messages, blasting towards the south, before hitting South Korea’s own––quite literal––sonic barrier. In a way, the Korean War continued long after 1953, with massive speakers as the weapon of choice.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that an audio-armistice was first introduced. This was a consequence of the unprecedented meeting between leaders from the two Koreas, which temporarily eased tensions on the Korean peninsula. But after a border incident in 2015, when landmines, believed to have been planted by the North, seriously wounded two South Korean border guards, South Korea decided to reactivate their ear-splitting broadcast. And Pyongyang did not hesitate to resume directing electricity––which isn’t particularly of abundance in North Korea––into their own speaker system. It would be another two years of psychological warfare––with the South firing K-Pop torturous enough for Kim Yong-un to prepare an actual, armed attack against the neighbour’s loudspeakers. Only in 2018, after another inter-Korean summit, did the South dismantle their speakers once again and in return receive a break from the North’s anti-capitalist, Kim-leadership-glorifying tunes.

The scariest place on earth

Prior to the first formal contacts between the Koreas in 2000 and the following decades of easing tensions (at least from a perspective relative to the second half of the 20th century) the DMZ was nicknamed “the scariest place on earth” by former US President Bill Clinton. Particularly the DMZ Conflict, which some refer to as the Second Korean War, painted a picture of terror inside the border zone. During the cross-border conflict, which lasted from 1963 until 1966, over 700 North- and South-Korean as well as American soldiers lost their lives. But there have been other deaths and injuries, resulting from the seemingly slightest missteps: During a routine tree-pruning operation, through which visual contact between the UN observation Post in the Joint Security Area and a UN Checkpoint at the Bridge of No Return was to be ensured, two US Army officers were killed and a group of South Korean severely injured by North Korean soldiers. This “Korean Axe Murder Incident” nearly put an end to the Korean armistice in 1976. Then there was said mine incident in 2015, wounding two South Korean border guards, which the country retaliated with K-Pop at about 147 decibels––the equivalent of an air-raid siren, above the physical pain threshold.

Civilians haven’t been spared by the two states’ cross-border power play either. In 1996, two villagers from Daeseong-dong, a mother and her son, were arrested and detained for five days by North Korean border guards for accidently crossing the demarcation line when picking acorns. This is the risk that comes with the privilege of being allowed to move around the DMZ freely and only having to report back for the nightly headcount at curfew, 23:00.

Free lunch and lush fauna

Despite the looming threat of getting caught in a propaganda cross-fire or being arrested for picking acorns––and other concerns that come with life only a few kilometers away from a rising nuclear power––Daeseong-dong does have its charm. For instance, the primary school. If it wasn’t for the “commuters”, children from nearby villages, the school would have four students. But the possibility to learn English from American soldiers and UN officials, who oversee the DMZ, is perceived as a great opportunity by many parents in the area close to the border and make the primary school a cheaper alternative to many expensive private schools. With lessons (and lunch!) being free, too, places even have to be given out through a lottery.

Just a few hundred meters outside Daeseong-dong stretches one of South Korea’s best kept nature reserves. A very low and strictly managed population density has turned the DMZ, and the surrounding civil control zone, into a wildlife sanctuary. Over 5,000 plant and animal species have been spotted inside the DMZ, including over 100 endangered species. The area is closely observed by the DMZ Ecology Research Institute. Members of the organization have expressed their concerns that increased cooperation between the Koreas may actually pose a serious risk to the unique biodiversity inside the DMZ and its surroundings. Mine clearance, for instance, would destroy much of the local flora. Increased industrial activities and planned railroad services between North and South Korea––and inevitably its buffer zone––would disturb the residing wildlife. Perhaps, it is better to leave the DMZ as it is, thinks Jung Suyoung, researcher at DMZ Botanical Garden nearby.

In many regards, cooperation on the Korean peninsula is at its most active point since the division of the country nearly seventy years ago. And cooperation, particularly across the DMZ, does not solely have to come in the form of economic activity or political acts of clearing mines. Both countries have been pushing for the declaration of the area as a biosphere reserve through UNESCO, very much to the delight of the members of the DMZ Ecology institute. Of course, as for natural resource conservation any kind of industrial human activity is worse than none, and increasing land utilization in the area poses a threat to its natural beauty. But so does yet another broadcast-war or continuing military training just a few kilometers away. Not to forget the threat looming over the area coming from the moody neighbour’s pet nuclear project… Whether cooperation will continue to increase or whether another provoking act in the neighbourhood will cause a resurrection of loudspeakers and other weaponry––for now there is hope. For Korean citizens, the natural beauty of the DMZ, but most of all for the villagers of Daeseong-dong, who have been craving some peace, and mostly quiet.

Related articles

Tourism in North Korea

The Future of the Last Socialistic Resort

Photo Credits

Tae Song Dong, Jeffrey Allen, U.S. Air Force, CC BY 2.0

DMZ, Korea, Piero Sierra, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

President Moon Jaein Gangwondo, Kang Min-seok, CC BY-SA 2.0

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A defector’s tale

Anna Bernard — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 20:01:06 +0000

On September the 22nd, UF Malmö members and others intrigued had a rare chance to sit down and hear the story of Mi Jin, a North Korean defector. The hall in Orkanen filled up with curiosity – the lived reality of people inside North Korea remains the great unknown of our time. The experiences of this woman, defecting from the totalitarian rule of one of the world’s most isolated countries, are unimaginable to most of us. She professed in a calm and composed manner the significance of determination and defiance in a battle from destitution to a position of advocacy.

The lecture “Inside North Korea” dealt with the reality of North Koreans’ lives and the Human Rights movement for North Korea. We also had the pleasure of having South Korean Eun Kyoung, Secretary General of the International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea, acting as interpreter for Mi Jin and sharing her own knowledge regarding the human rights violations found by the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry.

Life in North Korea

The story that Mi Jin shared with us was a narration riddled with hardship and perseverance under the strongman rule of a totalitarian regime. She faced personal loss and famine, overcame bigotry and was forced to endure seeing her young child work instead of study just to make ends meet. Eventually she exerted all the strength she could amass to be able to perform her mission impossible escape from the most isolated country in the world. She abandoned the regime, risking it all, to be able to provide a future defined by freedom to her daughter.

Mi Jin left escaped with her 14-year-old daughter in 2009, arriving in South Korea in January 2010 after traversing Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Mi Jin emphasized on several occasions that her daughter was the core reason for leaving, because their life defined by hardships became increasingly insecure after Mi Jin’s husband died when their daughter was only 10. At this point the daughter had to quit school in order to provide for the two remaining members of the family.

What chimed clearly throughout her recollections of her past in North Korea was the arduous everyday life; getting enough money to secure sufficient amounts of food was a perpetual battle, creating a situation where merely existing in the system was a daily fight for survival: “being employed does not mean anything in North Korea”, Mi Jin declared with contempt in her voice, having reminisced on her various jobs including an army-affiliated job and selling bread in the market.

A new life

The impetus for their plans to defect came when Mi Jin was almost detained by the officials. She reminisced with reticence how a police officer tried to “make trouble”, which led her into further problems. As Mi Jin was almost sent away to a prison camp she looked back at her life – she had always been a law-abiding citizen and a patriot. The constant influx of insecurities inflicted onto her life by the authorities seemed unscrupulous.

It is at this point that she took the required steps to commence her defection. She first explored the possibility of finding a Chinese broker who could sell them into China. Finding a broker who will sell a North Korean woman to a husband in China is a common way of defecting. However this plan did not take flight because she wanted to defect with her daughter, a factor that complicated issues. Thus she was forced to study the regimen of the border patrol squads to find a weak point in order to cross the border undetected.

And in this she managed, and she and her daughter fled the country into China. The perils, however, were not over, since they were forced to make their way out of China across several other countries, finally finding refuge in South Korea.

After settling in South Korea, Mi Jin has worked as a journalist in the South Korean online magazine, DailyNK, exploring the North Korean “ins-and-outs”. Her daughter, even after being so many years away from school, was welcomed by her South Korean peers and has reveled in her studies to the extent that she has been granted a scholarship to attend university in one of the most competitive societies in the world. Time after time, Mi Jin solemnly asserted with a smile on her face how incredibly proud she is of her daughter.

Advocating for change

There is something very impressive about hearing stories of the most vulnerable or marginalized people becoming strong advocates for their rights and the rights of others, trying to highlight an abusive situation in their home country while functioning as an influencer for positive change.

Mi Jin provided us with an insight into this kind of advocacy. Mi Jin and Eun Kyoung came to Malmö from Geneva to show us the power of evidence: the data derived from the monitoring of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry are critical for successful lobbying work.

Their visit showed us the power of relationship building – in this case engaging with the UN and other institutions and organizations. Both advocates make an effort to extend this relationship-building to potential future decision-makers and influencers which explains their eagerness to engage with students.

After the lecture some students had the opportunity to sit down with the guests for a more intimate conversation.

Mi Jin is an example to us all of co-operation of the media in raising awareness with the wider public while relentlessly telling the stories emanating from her North Korean informants still residing in the regime. Her disdain for the North Korean government became clear: advocates are able to and want to work, and it is their basic human right.

A leader cannot lead if nobody follows

Leadership takes many forms, and sometimes the underdog will go to the greatest lengths to advocate for real change. Mi Jin and Eun Kyoung’s cause, however venerable it is, requires not only their work and sacrifice, but it needs followers and support to gain momentum. On a number of occasions Mi Jin pointed out that there is too much focus on the North Korean leader, and not enough focus on the suffering and troubled everyday existence of the North Korean population. They are working to shift this focus, and we should be receptive for their plea.

By: Anna Bernard

Photo Credits

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Propaganda by Body Image

Yaroslav Mikhaylov — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 09:05:25 +0000

Political photos are usually a fairly boring subject, but modern internet trends and ubiquitous high-definition cameras have given us some very peculiar images – intentional or not – of some of today’s top political leaders. Some are caught shirtless at the back of a wedding and others are caught with their hands around a mysterious glowing orb, while another merely looks knowingly at packages of chicken. However, all of those images have one thing in common: they are designed to shape public perception of the subject. No matter how weird or peculiar, they try to make their subjects look good. Here are some successful and some unsuccessful attempts at propaganda by body image.

Politicians using images of themselves for political purposes is hardly a new phenomenon. Kings and political leaders as far back as the middle ages had portraits of themselves painted that exaggerated certain traits and concealed others in order to elicit a certain kind of feeling in their subjects. When one thinks of England’s Henry VIII, it is almost certainly Hans Holbein’s painting that comes to mind. In it, a well-dressed and muscled Henry is standing tall, a master of his domain practically daring the viewer to challenge him. The painting would make a great representation of Henry, if it wasn’t completely made up. Henry had just suffered an injury that left him physically weakened and, as a result, was losing strength and gaining weight. He had also lost control of the northern part of the country to a tax rebellion, making his defiant and in-control posture in the painting a complete farce. In short, the portrait was a brazen attempt at propaganda: “I’m still tough; let me show you!”. However, given that it is the image that we remember Henry VIII by 500 years later, one can say it was a quite successful attempt at passing a lie off as reality.

Being able to read their patrons and predict how they wanted to be portrayed was a key skill for medieval and early modern painters. Rembrandt van Rijn is considered to be one of the great Dutch masters, but even his legacy was not immune to the whims of the political leaders he was depicting. One of his most famous paintings is The Night Watch, depicting a group of Dutch upper class men engaging in their civic duty to defend the Dutch Republic. Like Holbein’s painting, it was also a lie: as the town’s mayor, Frans Banninck Cocq – the man in the center of the painting – would have almost certainly never seen actual combat. It was a success however, in no small part because it depicted the subjects exactly as they saw themselves. However, his most ambitious work was the giant 25 square meter painting of the revolt of the Batavians – the germanic people who lived in what is now The Netherlands during Roman times. The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, named after the leader of the Batavians, was met with far from the same acclaim as The Night Watch. Instead of depicting the Batavians, with whom the Dutch aristocracy identified, as civilized modern Europeans, he painted them as historically-correct rugged barbarians, led by a warlord Civilis. Instead of hanging the painting in the Amsterdam city hall, for which it was commissioned, it was returned to Rembrandt, who had to cut it down to a much smaller size before he managed to sell it for a small portion of its worth. While the two paintings were probably not intended as propaganda pieces, their different fates still show that powerful individuals are very aware of how they are depicted and strive to maintain an image that shows them in a good light.

When it comes to propaganda images, few are as bizarre and peculiar as those of North Korea’s ruling Kim family. While they do their share of autocratic speeches in front of mass rallies or military parades, it is the North Korean media’s steady flow of pictures of their leaders looking at things that stands out as the most peculiar. All of the images follow roughly the same format: Kim Jong Il or Kim Jong Un, surrounded by government and military officials hanging on to every word, looking at something comically mundane. From food to industrial machinery, there is practically nothing the Kims have not literally taken a look at. While it may seem like a strange form of propaganda to Western eyes, this ritual actually has great significance to the North Korean regime. One of the duties of North Korea’s leader is to observe various activities – mundane or otherwise – and suggest how they can be improved. The practice is referred to as on-the-spot guidance, and represents both the Kims’ vast knowledge and their ceaseless quest to improve North Korea. While its effect on the actual productivity of North Korea is debatable, it is nonetheless a brilliant, if perplexing, propaganda effort.

The reigning king of absurd propaganda photos is, however, Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Based on the official photos released by his staff, the president of Russia is the most interesting man in the world. He has done everything in the past two decades, from horseback riding and wrestling with tigers to piloting submarines and leading a biker gang, making one wonder when the arguably most powerful man in the world has time for the actual business of governing. The idea behind those propaganda shots, however, is easy to understand: Putin is a strong and powerful man, projecting an image of a strong and powerful Russia abroad. The unspoken corollary – that he is too strong to be opposed – is likewise an effective message in a country fond of revolutions. However, as Putin has aged – he is turning 65 this year – his displays of machismo have increasingly began bordering on ridiculous. It is very difficult to imagine him outscoring Olympic hockey players, for example, without seeing the whole thing as an exaggerated photo-opp. Nonetheless, Putin continues to be very popular both in Russia and abroad, making the mighty sexagenarian act a successful propaganda coup.

Putin’s shirtless world leader’s club has recently been joined by an unexpected new arrival – Canada’s Justin Trudeau. Yet while Putin’s photos depict him engaging in exciting and extraordinary activities, Trudeau is often not even the center of attention in his photos. Many of his most popular photos are of him in the background or joining ordinary Canadians in activities such as hiking or surfing. Even when he is pictured with other celebrities or world leaders, it is their reactions – usually very positive – to Trudeau that draw the eye. It is all, of course, much more likely to be a well-organized propaganda strategy than a series of lucky coincidences, but it nonetheless tells us a lot about how Trudeau sees himself – as a youthful and captivating frontman for Canada’s inclusive, welcoming and engaged society. Considering the collective Internet excitement every time a new photo of Trudeau pops up, the unorthodox strategy seems to be working quite well.

While some of the strange PR strategies seen in this article worked out well, it is important to keep your audience in mind, which is something that the US President Donald Trump’s team clearly did not when a photo emerged of him clutching a glowing orb together with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Meant to symbolize the opening of a Middle Eastern anti-terrorism surveillance center, the image of three men holding a globe in their hands may have served as an effective message in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, neither of which can be classified as a democracy. In the US and Europe however, the image was immediately met with ridicule, comparing Trump and his fellows to comic book villains. The story of the Orb should serve as a cautionary tale that a propaganda photo that goes viral is not always bound to be successful.

Oscar Wilde said that “there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For politicians in today’s 24-hour news cycle, that adage continues to hold true. Thanks to the ubiquity of access to digital media, even in closed-off countries like North Korea, politicians have to compete with cats, ponies and Harambe the Gorilla for the public’s attention. With the internet’s natural attraction to the surreal and the peculiar, it is no surprise that some of the most well-known politicians in the world are those with weird and unusual media strategies. While shirtless Justin Trudeau is unlikely to enter the canon of world art the same way Hans Holbein’s Henry VIII did, the two are both part of the same ancient artistic tradition.

By Yaroslav Mikhaylov

Photo credit

Cover Photo: Amanda Lucidon, Official White House Photo, official government work

Image 1: Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger 1497/8, Public Domain via Google Art Project

Image 2: Rembrandt van Rijn, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Image 3: Rembrandt van Rijn, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Image 4: Korean Central News Agency via kimjongillookingatthings, official government work

Image 5: Office of the President of the Russian Federation, official government work

Image 6: GoToVan, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

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Tourism in North Korea

Evgenia Isaeva — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:09:36 +0000

News of North Korea tends to constantly be on the agenda in media outlets worldwide. Mostly because of the country’s nuclear policy and constant threat to international security. However, lately there has been a slight change in the information presented by the media. Something that captures attention has happened – more and more information about North Korea aiming at attract direct foreign investment to the country in order to develop its tourism industry is now being reported on. This is an interesting phenomenon for such a secretive country that fears the spread of Western values among its society. Indeed, North Korea has already began developing its tourism by building tourist attractions. Nowadays it has become easier to get a visa to go there for leisurely and scenic purposes, as a tourist.

What made the North Korean government reconsider their policies regarding traveling to the country? And what might this mean? Most likely, it is economic benefit that has made the North Korean government rethink its policies. The country’s economy is weak and unstable so the government is trying to address the situation by attracting foreign currency throughout means of promoting tourism. This could result in tremendous changes in the relations between North Korea and the rest of the world. Or perhaps this change of heart in North Korean politicians had could lead to something greater and indeed a brighter future for the country. So far, it is difficult to judge and quite impossible to predict how things will unravel.

Whilst, it is becoming easier to go to North Korea some other questions arise. What would it be like to go on a holiday to the most isolated country in the world? What is to be expect behind its borders?

If you are interested in visiting this country, the only way to go to North Korea is with organised tours facilitated by travel agencies. Almost the entire tourism sphere for western tourists in DPRK is monopolized by two companies – Koryo Tours and Young Pioneers Tours, both based in Beijing. No limitations on who can enter the country exist – everyone can go no matter what your nationality is. Unfortunately, no exact data on the number of tourists visiting North Korea annually exists. The only statistics that we can refer to are provided by NK News (a website publishing news in North Korea). Around 6 000 western tourist per year are reported to visit North Korea and the number is increasing annually.

The majority of current tours focus on the capital of North Korea – Pyongyang. However, new locations are being developed for future tours. Several new tourist attractions have already appeared or are in development in North Korea. The most remarkable one is the Masik Pass Ski Resort in Wonsan, which opened a year ago. This resort is one of the most important facilities aimed at attracting foreigners to North Korea. There is also the Munsu Water Park, and a brand-new surf resort that is equipped with numerous tourist amenities.

Essentially, the government is trying its best to turn the country into a location which is attractive to tourist from all over the world. Nevertheless, many people question the moral implication of tourism to North Korea.

When it comes to making a decision on whether to go to North Korea, moral and ethical issues of visiting this secretive state gain relevance. The country that is notorious for numerous gross human right violations, and its development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would seems to be an unsuitable place for leisurely travel. Critics claim that tourism is a means of funding the government’s propaganda and their tyrannical regime, and therefore, should not be encouraged. As economic data is not provided by the government, it is unknown where the profits raised through the tourism industry will be directed. It is argued that foreign currency brought by the tourists might go on expansion of the North Korean nuclear sphere, supporting the potential for crimes against humanity.

Still it is very unlikely that the money that North Korean government gets from tourism might be used for tightening the situation in the country. The contribution of tourism to North Korea economically is insignificant, therefore it is incorrect to assume that the profit made on foreign travelers will be used to build more prisons and support human rights violations. On the contrary, if North Korea does gain in foreign currency, it will potentially be able to engage in financial transactions with other countries, and export goods. More importantly, frequent visits of Western people might breach informational blockades and show ordinary North Koreans fragments of western life, raise awareness of the reality beyond the border, change the way they see the rest of the world, and perhaps even plant an idea that they are able to create change in the country. Additionally, tourism might become a ground for better relations between North Korea and other states.

Even though abundant propaganda will always proliferate – the designated tour guides will only show visitors only what the government wants them to see and try their best to avoid any kind of tourist interaction with locals and harsh reality – tourism should not be discouraged. It is to be perceived as a tool to establish tighter connection between peoples and state.

Without a doubt, North Korea has been losing its reputation as one of the most out of reach places in the world to visit. More and more opportunities to travel there are emerging every day. This shift in the politics of a state that used to be of extremely anti-Western orientation could be a positive sign. It may take much time to see the change and improvement but as North Korea has already taken a step towards the world, the world should not turn its back on it.

By Evgenia Isaeva

Image credit:

Picture 1, 2: (stephan), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Picture 3: Benjamin Jakabek, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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The Future of the Last Socialistic Resort

Victoria Yantseva — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 22:24:43 +0000

Imagine: one day you wake up and find out from the newspaper that the North Korean government announced widespread democratic and market reforms. They introduce freedom of speech, private entrepreneurship and convertible currency, and many other things inherent to liberal and democratic countries. Their citizens can now travel to other countries, buy imported goods and vote for the government they like. The democratic peace is established. Other states can exhale and no longer worry about North Korean military power.

Now you can stop dreaming: this did not happen. The North Korean reality is actually full of contradictions. It combines planned economy with individual entrepreneurship, ”iron curtain” with escaping from the country, ration cards with individual farming, repressions with reforms, censorship with dreams about Chinese video recorders.

Still, we can only guess about the future of the North Korean regime, as it is not that predictable in the modern market-oriented and interdependent world. It may endure for an indefinite period of time; it may be dismantled and substituted with a more democratic and market-oriented system (following the example of the USSR). Other options are, it might transform into a system with state control over the political system and market economy (following example of China); or perhaps the existing socialist system might be replaced with some other form of dictatorship.

Either way, what would happen if North Korea was to finally embark on the road to democratisation and the building of a market economy? Let’s make some guess-work. Democratisation would probably be welcomed by the international community and its own citizens. Though, it could create obstacles inconveniencing many interested parties.

The current elite, led by Kim Jong-un, are the main decision-makers and the ones with the power to reform North Korea. It is possible that they would honestly be willing to introduce democratic and economic reforms in the country to the full extent. But having perpetrated gross human rights violations in the country, no one could guarantee their immunity after the liberation of their people and no one would guarantee that they wouldn’t be massacred by citizens or stand trial at court. Therefore, safest option left for decision-makers would be to continue moving towards a bright, socialistic future.

Let’s once again imagine that, in order to facilitate the transition to democracy in the country, the international community decides to strike a bargain with the North Korean elites and promise to refrain from prosecution. This causes a moral dilemma: this promise may provide an impetus for democratic development and liberation of 25 million people. At the same time, this would be unfair to those who suffered from the regime and would create a precedent demonstrating that violating human rights and international law can be justified. However, to keep the promise to punish the guilty means to preserve the situation in its current form.

No doubt, the United Nations would warmly welcome a newly born democratic North Korea that would live in peace with its neighbours. However, in case a new government couldn’t make a smooth transition to market system, the economy could end up in a fine pickle. This creates the potential for whopping inflation, unemployment and famine, which the United Nations may have to deal with. Yet, the situation with malnutrition is already a burden for the North Korean government. The United Nations has been helping to feed hungry North Korean citizens, as the planned economy cannot cope with the people’s existing nutritional needs. Still, North Korea is not on the list of top aid recipients. But it could be – if the situation with food supplies worsens. In this case, to help North Korea get on its own feet, the United Nations would need to provide additional monetary injections, staff resources and humanitarian aid to avoid growing human suffering.

North and South Korea used to be one country in the past, and reunification is a dream that has been bothering both countries since their parting. Reunification could become more of a reality if there were to be reforms in the Northern part. The problem is that the infrastructure and living standards of these two parts would have to be aligned. The South would have to invest a lot of hard-earned money in North Korean economy to close the gap between the former neighbours’ economic situation. At the same time, the South could possibly be overwhelmed by the migrant flow, coming from above the 38^th parallel.

China, the main trading partner of North Korea, would feel the consequences of its ally making a 180 degree-turn as well. North Koreans could also dash to China in pursuit of jobs or a better life. The immigration would impact China’s national security. Some consider North Korea to be a buffer between China and South Korea which has American troops on its territory, and China and the USA don’t have a very warm relationship. The region would need time to redress the balance of power.

However, the above-mentioned scenarios are quite moderate depictions of how the situation might actually develop in the future. Even though a Third World War seems to be the most unrealistic option, we should always keep in mind that North Korea is a nuclear power. Increased pressure on the current regime, humanitarian interventions or military operations could rock the fragile boat of non-war. We shouldn’t write off the possibility of civil war and a race for power if the current elite would prove unable to continue governing the country. In that case, total state control would be replaced with complete anarchy and humanitarian catastrophe.

Still, we can only guess what the future of 25 million people would be like. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” – democratisation could be accompanied by crisis. And it might turn out that North Korea was much better off with socialism, than with the greater economic hardship and human suffering democracy might bring.

Related articles:

Of brain drain, K-Pop, and other threats at the inter-Korean border

Tourism in North Korea

Photo credits:

Picture 1: Will De Freitas, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2 & 3: (stephan), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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