About North Korea

By Ceejae Bea

Richard Pennington wrote on Aug. 3 of North Korea, “They need a full-blown revolution.”

How is that supposed to happen? He doesn't expand but drops bombshell hints. As an example of “the people's willingness to rise up,” he describes a prison revolt in 1987 during the rule of Kim Il-sung. It resulted in “5,000” killed and “burned or dumped into mass graves.” Isn't that a warning not to “rise up” or does Richard consider that under Kim Jong-un it's now worth the risk?

One generally differentiates between prison riots and citizens demonstrating. About 2.3 million people are currently imprisoned in the U.S., a higher proportion of the population than every other nation, except a similar estimate for North Korea. Around 100 incarcerated Americans die weekly from all causes including natural, suicide and murder; others are wrongly shot by police before getting to prison. Americans have much to correct in their own yard.

I strongly advocate exposing violations of human rights. However, Richard writes, “Some were there (North Korea's Camp 12) for allowing dust to gather on a portrait of Kim Il-sung.” It appeared in Britain's right-wing Telegraph in 2017 without a source. Defector Jun Yoo-sung said, “A member from the Workers' Party is often assigned to check. If dust is found, you pay a fine ― the thicker the dust, the more you pay.”

It's more likely that the WP pocket the fine than report the dust to the police. It illustrates that, in fearmongering about North Korea, we can rarely double check for veracity. We risk writing it more terribly than it may be.

Richard's prison description has been in the public domain for years and corroborated; he is correct to repeat it for as long as torture, malnourishment and gulag conditions prevail. But this is the Opinion column, not recycled news. I question his hints of how to remedy the human tragedy which is North Korea.

A hint at regime change, other than by a peaceful internal process, is worrying. The last eight decades of America knocking over leaders aren't glorious. Imperial Japan was demolished by atomic bombing civilians and coerced armaments workers including thousands of Korean slaves. However, Americans may claim they swiftly ended the Pacific War.

Interviewed in 1954, General MacArthur said, “I would have dropped…atomic bombs…across the neck of Manchuria.... A belt of radioactive cobalt could have been spread.... For at least 60 years there could have been no land invasion of Korea from the north.”

If he had gotten his atomic bombs, would Korea now be a happier, unified nation without deplorable prison camps? The Korean War killed up to 3 million Koreans and combatants, but regime change did not visit North Korea.

More died in the much longer warfare in former Indo-China. However, “Uncle” Ho Chi-Minh survived to age 79 and was knocked over by heart failure not by America.

Arguably, Cuba might have been happier without Fidel Castro. He also imprisoned political dissidents and subjected them to slave labor on inadequate food rations, North Korean-style. In 2016, he died at 90, a life unscathed by American attempts to overthrow him.

America and its allies did achieve regime change in Iraq. Tragically, Bush and Britain's Blair picked on the wrong nation to avenge 9/11. The terrorists were from allies and oil suppliers; none was Iraqi. Invading Iraq in 2003 and overthrowing Saddam Hussein was based partly on false information. The aftermath of replacing him became “The Iraq Body Count,” a genocide currently at 288,000.

Has American-led regime change in Afghanistan and Libya led to happier outcomes? Evidence suggests that Americans are more efficient behind their cruise missiles and bomb-controls than behind desks planning peaceful solutions to nasty problems like brutal men in power or terrorist hideouts.

Whilst researching and writing three historical/contemporary novels on North Korea, I considered four steps to reunification of which Step Three might reduce human rights abuses in North Korean as a deal for inward investment. Step One, seemingly very tough, is total verifiable denuclearization in exchange for a much reduced American military presence and halting war exercises. Step Two is ending the Korean War. Step Four, reunification, is a long-term goal but should not hinder Steps 1 to 3.

For the reasons hinted at by Richard, that could be far away.

Ceejae Bea's Korean novels, written in the last four years, are “The Ins and Outs of North Korea,” “Reaching Across the East Sea” and “More Ins and Outs of North Korea.”