The Debate

The Human Tragedy of North Korea

A focus on nukes and rockets overlooks an ongoing human tragedy.

The Human Tragedy of North Korea

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North Korea is one time over again in the news. Later its recent launch of a long-range missile, ostensibly for the purpose of satellite delivery, fears about the land'due south nuclear ambitions are at a high. Government officials around the globe are discussing strategies for containing the potential nuclear threat.

Unfortunately, and quite tragically, this seems to be all anyone talks about when they talk about North Korea – although occasionally headlines are created when the regime imprisons foreigners, especially if they are Americans. Just North korea, qua grotesque human tragedy, seems to barely register on our commonage radar.

An eye-opening U.Northward. Man Rights Council report released in 2014 did garner some media attention, but the discussion was fleeting.

The written report detailed the regime's systematic corruption of its population as well as its economic mismanagement of food production, leading to widespread food shortages, the most acute of which occurred in the 90s and caused the deaths of millions of people.

The study likewise describes how any explicit or implicit criticism of the regime tin can state N Koreans in a forced labor campsite. The regime demands strict, unwavering loyalty, frequently in very foreign means. For example, each household is required to place 3 portraits – one of Kim Il-sung, one of Kim Jong-il, and ane of the 2 of them together – up on its walls. Frequent bowing to these portraits is likewise required. Anything only strict reverence for these images is harshly punished. The U.N. report details a instance where a homo was sent to prison camp for life for unintentionally soiling the image of the Supreme Leader by using a newspaper containing the image to mop up some spilt milk. Fortunately, the rest of his family unit was spared.

Other families are not so fortunate. Many "political crimes" can land not just you lot, simply your unabridged family, in prison camp for life. Children born in such camps are forced to remain there for their whole lives. Except for those in Camp 15, the inmates are considered "ideologically irredeemable" and have no promise of securing release.

How bad are the prison camps themselves? Describing the conditions as a "living hell" probably doesn't do them justice. In that location is, explicitly, no legal process to constrain how the guards are to treat the inmates – this gives the guards total impunity and discretion with regards to the treatment of prisoners. There is widespread rape, coupled with forced abortions. There is widespread intentional starvation. If a prisoner does not fulfill her work quota, no matter how ill or weak she may be, she is browbeaten, tortured, or mutilated. In that location is also widespread use of public executions to make examples out of inmates who "disobey."

To add to the travesty, well-nigh of North korea'southward residents have no idea what the outside world is similar. This is because the regime maintains strict command over what information is disseminated to the populace. All of the media is country run, and it is a crime to possess whatever CDs, DVDs, etc., containing foreign films or other media. This is i of the principal methods by which the authorities maintains its grip over the population.

Homo life in N Korea is a nightmare, and the world ought to do something about it. Many do not consider straight confrontation with the regime to exist an option. There might be some wisdom in this – the land has a massive (admitting vastly outdated) continuing army, and it possibly has nuclear weapons.

Many observers call back that the best way forward is for the international customs to footstep up pressure on China. China continues to support the government in many ways, the nearly important of which is the enforcement of the land border it shares with North korea. China refuses to treat escaping Due north Koreans equally refugees and often sends them back (to their deaths). But if anybody is a refugee, surely it is the North Korean fleeing starvation, torture, and complete domination by the land. Moreover, if China does non want to suit all of these refugees, the residuum of the world ought to be willing to step upwardly to acknowledge some of them, after they are processed through Red china.

The reasons behind People's republic of china's standing to prop up the authorities are very puzzling – the country has no ideological or economic reasons to exercise and so. On the first count, China has moved well past the old credo of state monopoly over all means of production. Since Mao'southward expiry, China has welcomed foreign investment, merchandise, and private sector companies, and is now the largest exporter (by far) on earth.

Second, China's trade with North Korea is miniscule when compared to its total merchandise. Estimates for the entire GDP of North korea range from nearly $15 billion (per capita: ~$600) to $forty billion. Compare that with Republic of korea'south Gdp of $i.4 trillion (per capita: ~$28,000) – neighborhoods in Seoul have greater total Gdp than the whole of North korea. And while China'south trade with Due north Korea is around $5.6 billion, its merchandise with South korea dwarfs this figure, reaching $215 billion in 2012. Thus, fifty-fifty from a purely self-interested perspective of boosting trade, China would do ameliorate if North korea were to liberalize its economy (which might only be possible later on regime change) in the mode of its southern neighbor.

Maybe our reluctance to do annihilation nigh Democratic people's republic of korea's depravity towards its ain people owes to the observation that getting rid of dictators has not worked and then well in the contempo past. Be that as it may, there are good reasons to retrieve that this example is dissimilar – just look at South Korea! While the south largely shares its cultural and historical background with the northward, it has transformed itself into a vibrant, flourishing republic with a very loftier standard of living.

Information technology is high time, then, for the world to do something about the ongoing plight of the utterly subjugated population of North Korea. Because information technology's the right thing to do. Because it'south 2016.

Hrishikesh Joshi is a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University, focusing on ethics and political philosophy.