Posted on Tue, Mar 25, 2008, at 04:46 PM
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=nBzHCVv5GeQ
Over 1 million North Koreans died in the mid-1990s from starvation, at a time when North Korea not only was the largest recipient of international aid in the world, but when the nation had enough food in it's coffers to feed it's people. This is a fact. The North Korean government is fundamentally different than most systems you and I are familiar with. This is a value judgment, yes- they do not care for the lives of their citizens. Kim Jong Il has publicly noted that only 10% of the DPRK needs to survive for it to be a "successful state." It is a modern-day monarchy. A dictatorship ruled by a system of elites that lives off of the back of the rest of its people.
The problem is - this is a radical problem. And it requires honest talk. Today, in North Korea, there do not exist freedoms of speech, religion, movement, assembly, dissent- nearly anything. You require a permit to leave your hometown. You cannot complain about a day's rations; fold a newspaper so that the crease falls upon Kim Jong Il's face; or listen to broadcasts of outside radio stations. The punishment for violating any of these statutes is severe. North Korean maintains the world's largest system of concentration camps. Over 250,000 North Korean citizens are dying in these camps, working hard labor, digging coal mines, and stripping bark off trees. And North Korea's three-generation policy means that any "violator" is sent to camps along with three generations in his family- so most of these individuals do not even know what they were imprisoned for.
[ see article for reference: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/09/news/korea.php ]
Today, you can see satellite images of North Korea's concentration camps on the internet. Just go on Google Earth. You can find it yourself.
Nearly half a million North Koreans have fled their country, for food, for family, for freedoms, into China, Russia, and other neighboring countries. Some nations, like Mongolia, accept them warmly, rehabilitate them, and send them on to free nations like Korea or the United States. Others, like China, hunt down refugees and repatriate them by the hundreds weekly. North Korea's public criminal code has stated that those who leave the DPRK without permission have committed treason, and will be punished by execution. That makes the half million or so North Koreans internationally protected refugees- except China refuses to recognize them, and arrests them. Nearly 70% of the women among these refugees have been sexually trafficked- sold for sometimes less than a hundred dollars. And the biracial children of this union grow up stateless- the DPRK will not recognize them, as they are not racially "pure", and China has no birthright on it's territory. They EXIST illegally, and cannot, for life, attend school, get jobs, or get medical care.
Half a million of our brothers and sisters live this life. 24 million others are nearly a foot shorter than their Korean American cousins, on average. They have grown up permanently stunted physically and mentally, for lack of proper diet in their formative years.
The sufferings in North Korea do not come from a tsunami, earthquake, or feuding clans. It does not come from disease, famine or a failed state. It is entirely man made.
So why am I posting this? It’s because this has been going on long enough. During World War II when there were concentration camps we said we will never let this happen again. Well news flash… There still exists TODAY.. concentration camps, slavery… basically every human rights law is violated in North Korea and no one seems to care about it.
Elie Weisel once stated that “The opposite of love isn’t hate – it’s indifference.” As Americans it’s really easy to be indifferent about issues that don’t necessarily involve us, like this one, which is why I wanted to battle those indifferences. Crisis like this one almost have four aspects to them. There’s the Cause, the Effect, the Solution, and the Significance. After watching the documentary “Seoul Train” it showed pretty clearly the cause and effects of what’s going on right now in North Korea. However, the main problem I saw that not enough people knew about the significance, or “Why should we care?” and the solutions, or “What am I supposed to do about it?”
In a world of international tragedy, it’s sometimes hard to see the people of North Korea as part of the “least.” And in a country where the media wants us only to see nuclear weapons, friends or foes of democracy, and ethnocentrism as patriotism, it’s increasingly difficult to see anyone outside of our own borders as a neighbor. Loving the North Korea people, then, meaning not being indifferent toward them and their situation, is difficult. But then again it’s our responsibility. It’s our mission to educate the world about what’s going on, and awareness is the first step to change.
www.linkglobal.org
Hunger knows no politics
What great father starves his own children?
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