Where to go to get a look inside North Korea.
BY BRENDAN MINITER
Thursday, July 6, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
Asked by reporters this week why North Korea would test fire several missiles into the Sea of Japan despite being warned by the international community not to, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow declined to answer: "I'd rather not read the mind of a leader, nor do any of us want to read the mind of a leader in a non-transparent society."
That's understandable. North Korea is one of the most repressive and least transparent nations in the world. It has no free press, a paranoid dictator in Kim Jong Il and is difficult for foreign intelligence agencies to penetrate--even South Koreans stand out among their half-starved cousins to the north. But as a humanitarian disaster as well as a belligerent on the world stage, North Korea is the subject of intense observation. We thought it would be useful to highlight some sources on the Web that provide insights into what is happening, what might be done to prevent a tragic outcome and what might be driving the North Koreans to provoke a confrontation that on its face looks unwinnable for Kim Jong Il. At just 3% of its gross national product, South Korea's defense budget alone is larger than North Korea's entire economy. And belligerence by the North is likely to give the U.S. a stronger constellation of allies, force Japan to bolster its defenses and perhaps spur South Koreans to elect a more tough minded government next year. Kim's aggressive behavior is already starting to alienate Russia, which recently participated in a joint naval exercise with Japan and South Korea.
The "North Korean Zone" offers a round up of the latest news including links to news articles, as well as analysis and radio and TV broadcasts that are beamed into North Korea. The site also welcomes photos and comments from anyone who has visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and information on key events in North Korea in recent years, including the massive explosion in Ryongchon two years ago that destroyed a train station not long after Kim Jong Il passed through it. On the news this week, Barry Briggs, one of the site's frequent contributors, surveyed reports from around the world and concludes: "By all accounts, these [missile] tests seem to be causing a political and diplomatic disaster for the DPRK."
For broad analysis, the University of San Francisco's Nautilus Institute offers an interesting discussion about how North Korea's policy of "military first" or "Songun" has shaped its political culture to make it more aggressive. With military service compulsory and one million of the 24 million people in the country in uniform, the military has outsized influence, forms the backbone of the country's economy and has stunted economic growth while stoking fears of foreign and domestic security risks.
Alexander V. Vorontsov, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies finds that a nation with a dominant military leader isn't necessarily destined to be an impoverished, belligerent backwater. Park Chung-hee, a colonel in the South Korea's army, seized power in 1961 in a "bloodless coup" and, as Mr. Vorontsov notes, "Though politics became more repressive, the national economy grew exponentially." Today Park is remembered as the "father of the South Korean economic miracle" and the economic growth he sparked likely planted seeds for democratization. Mr. Vorontsov is hopeful a similar transition is possible in the North and the military will give rise to a mixed economy. "The result may eventually be a network of large, less state-controlled corporations," he writes.
Aidan Foster-Carter, a senior research fellow at Leeds University in Britain who has studied North Korea for more than 35 years, disagrees. He concludes that "North Korea long ago chose to be Sparta" and is now incapable of anything other than threatening its neighbors. "Sensible small states seek security either under the skirts of big powers. . .," he writes, "or banding together to promote international law." Kim Jong Il's father chose neither. He launched the Korean War, leaving four million dead with little to show for it. Mr. Foster-Carter continues:
Far from creating a kangsong taeguk (strong prosperous state), songun proved a great leap backward. Once an industrializing model for the Third World, the DPRK was plunged into a terrible famine. At least a million ordinary North Koreans were sacrificed for songun.
Economic catastrophe aside, ultra-militarism also exacts its political and ideological price. Under Kim Jong-il the military has become a third estate, outranking the Party and cabinet. Those bemedalled old generals have much to lose from any outbreak of peace. . . .
Ideologically, after 60 years bellicosity is hardwired into the DPRK system. From cradle to grave, North Koreans are taught to fight and told they are under attack. A loyal soldier is the height of virtue. Is this mentality compatible with being a profit-seeking entrepreneur?
Doesn't the DPRK face a hostile world? Yes, but one largely of its own making. Donald Rumsfeld's recent trip to Hanoi shows there is another way. Vietnam suffered just as much at US hands, but it made its peace with Washington (easier, perhaps, if you won your war).
The clearest picture of life in North Korea comes from those who were once forced to live it. Melanie Kirkpatrick, a deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, recently interviewed two such refugees who made their way to the U.S. where, under a new law passed at the urging of the Bush administration, they were among the first North Koreans given asylum inside this country. Ms. Kirkpatrick's article, available here, offers a glimpse of life on the run for North Koreans. The two women she interviewed made their way through China, where they were kidnapped and sold off into sexual slavery before finally managing to escape.
Liberty in North Korea or LiNK is a small organization based in Washington and dedicated to spotlighting human rights abuses and helping North Koreans. Over the past year LiNK has opened more than two dozen secret refugee shelters in China for those who escape Kim Jong Il's regime and on its Web site reports what a team it sent to China recently found:
Many of the refugees we encountered had heartbreaking stories to share. One woman was sold for only a few hundred dollars, and spent three months in essentially sexual slavery, before she was rescued by a man who was able to purchase her freedom, and connect her with underground networks. Two orphaned young men, aged 21, also shared their stories--siblings and parents dying of hunger, relatives missing. . . . The difference was shocking, and tragic. They also spoke of witnessing public executions.
Some of the refugees we met with have been captured while attempting to cross [the border into China], or being close to the border. They tell us that standard policy is detention for about 6 months. They also told us that when the same individual was caught three times, they would summarily be executed. The two boys, as well as several others we met with, were at that stage. "I don't want to be caught again. If I'm sent back, I will be killed."
Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who spent several months in North Korea providing medical care for the poor, managed to travel extensively in the country. He stopped by The Wall Street Journal's offices a few years ago and as he described what he had seen, it was clear that he was personally moved by the humanitarian crisis he had witnessed on the peninsula. An interview with him is available online here. He is now active in helping bring aid to the North Korean people.
Mr. Miniter is assistant editor of OpinionJournal.
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