Don't take North Korea as laughing matter
By Matthew Daniels
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With the recent death of American student Otto Warmbier, the world is desperately trying to beat an oppressive North Korean regime with dismissive laughter and mockery, and the occasional Dennis Rodman visit.
As much as satire can be a powerful tool for criticizing systems of oppression, the reality is that humor has its limits. In fact, laughing at genocidal regimes can be downright dangerous.
There was a time when making fun of Adolph Hitler was a cinematic fad in Hollywood, where “Der Fuhrer” was sent up by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to the Three Stooges. After the war, when the concentration camps were liberated, government leaders responded with war crimes tribunals, the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the mantra “Never Again.”
Yet here we are. America’s elite either know or ought to know how brutal Kim Jong Un’s regime is, yet they seem to focus only on his nuclear program. And the news media, like Hollywood of yesteryear, is more than content to play along ― remember 2014’s “The Interview”? ― without presenting the full scope of the threat to humanity that he poses.
The Trump administration ended one long running joke when they announced the end to Obama’s strategy of “strategic patience” in dealing with North Korea. But if we’re serious about combating state sponsors of terror and genocide in America’s world, then America’s efforts to deal with King Jong-un can’t be another joke.
Even in the face of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry report or the independent Hogan Lovells report, or multiple congressional hearings, even after the regime successfully executed one of the greatest industrial sabotage cyber-attacks to date, the leaders of America’s national security apparatus seem only concerned with the nuclear threat Kim poses.
The North Korean regime’s crimes against humanity are on par with those of Nazi Germany, but in recent years, Hollywood’s response has been to repeat history by making fun of the regime, just as they did in the early 1940s. And like Saturday Night Live’s spoofs of America’s presidents, these parodies and lampoons do not rise to the level of satire ― they’re purely for entertainment, not to teach a deeper lesson.
There is an important difference between parody and satire. Some subjects deserve more than just parody, especially when it comes amid the silent tears of thousands of brutalized North Koreans. Deriding Kim as a caricature of crazy might make us feel better or temporarily safe, but it does nothing to alleviate the suffering of so many.
And it should be obvious to everyone at this point that modern dangers are nothing to joke about. Just this month, more than 20 were killed at a concert in the U.K., and the North Koreans have pushed ahead with dire warnings and tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
We must challenge Hollywood to make a compelling movie about the North Korean concentration camps where entire generations are born and die without even learning of the existence of a world beyond the barbed wire of the slave labor camp. We need to galvanize world opinion now for action to end the human rights holocaust in North Korea.
Fighting the great evil of America’s time will require a group effort. The U.S., its foreign allies, the entertainment and technology communities and NGOs must work together to combat ISIS, North Korea and other extremist groups and factions using their expertise and capabilities.
Consider that the North Korean system of songbun is comparable to apartheid South Africa. The regime has a population of more than 25 million people, and as many as 120,000 or more of them are in concentration camps like those of WWII. And while the country’s capital, Pyongyang, was once called “the Jerusalem of the East,” the genocide occurring there against Christians is real and no different than ISIS’ attempts to exterminate them in Iraq and Syria.
The repeated famines in the country are entirely self-induced, just as they are in parts of Africa, and the devaluation of the currency several years back only exacerbated the country’s economic woes. The tuberculosis epidemic there is the result of the same kinds of public health policies that created epidemics in the Soviet Union, and if it spreads beyond their borders, the threat to the world outside might be just as great as from a nuclear missile ―or worse.
Instead of shining a light on these atrocities, America’s late-night comics and movie producers have desensitized us to the horrors that are happening each day. North Korea is a threat to the United States and to the hundreds of thousands of its own citizens living daily under unimaginable oppression.
There’s nothing funny about that.
Matthew Daniels, J.D., Ph.D. is Chair of Law & Human Rights at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and the creator of www.universalrights.com.