I base it on reports I've read and seen of people who have escaped North Korea, who seem to be in a tiny minority. These people describe a population that LOVE Kim, and worship him. They get NO outside media, and other than these VERY few people who escape, we have no window into their world. Apparently, the vast majority firmly believe that Mr. Kim is the "strong man" who is keeping the western devils at bay, and live in fear that we will invade, kill their old people, rape the women and eat their children, deep fried and lightly breaded. The privations they suffer helps Kim to keep them safe.
There is no organized underground opposition that has been reported by any of these escapees. They all got out with only the help of perhaps their families, if they could trust them. Most of these people didn't think they were escaping anything other than hopefully starvation, since they had no notion that where they were going was any better.
One series of articles in particular, I believe it was by Nick Kristof, who went to North Korea and toured, escorted by two government "minders", but he reported the same thing. North Koreans LOVE Kim Jong Il. I'll try to find it.
search.barnesandnoble.com
He sees to have extended it into a book.
Here's him on video talking about his trip:
nytimes.com
Here's what Kristof has said:
"Every single home in this country has two portraits on the wall, one of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, who is still president even though he died 11 years ago, and one of his son, the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Inspectors regularly visit homes to make sure the portraits are well cared for.
Every subway car carries those same two portraits as well, and every adult wears a button depicting the Great Leader. And every home (or village, in rural areas) has an audio speaker, which starts broadcasting propaganda at 6 each morning to tell people how lucky they are.
Children spend long hours in day care centers from the age of 6 months, sometimes returning to their parents only on weekends. Men normally perform seven or more years of military service. Disabled people are sometimes expelled from Pyongyang, a green and well-groomed capital that is one of the prettiest in Asia, because they are considered unsightly.
And although the national ideology is juche, or self-reliance, the U.N. World Food Program feeds 6.5 million North Koreans, almost one-third of the population. Even so, hunger is widespread and has left 37 percent of the children stunted.
Yet North Korea focuses its resources on prestige projects, like an amazing 10-lane highway to Nampo (with no traffic).
Many conservatives in and out of the Bush administration assume that North Korea's population must be seething and that the regime must be on its last legs. Indeed, the Bush administration's policy on North Korea, to the extent that it has one, seems to be to wait for it to collapse.
I'm afraid that could be a long, long wait. The central paradox of North Korea is this: No government in the world today is more brutal or has failed its people more abjectly, yet it appears to be in solid control and may even have substantial popular support . . ." |
