Sanctions Harden Lives of Ordinary North Koreans

North Korean men fish at the waterfront of the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong in this 2006 file photo.

/ AP-Yonhap

By Andrei Lankov
Korea Times Columnist

Recently, relations between South and North Korea are facing another crisis. Pyongyang broke off all official communications with the South, and refuses to cooperate on the investigation of a tragic shooting incident, which led to the death of a South Korean woman.
It even refuses to accept food aid from the South Korean government.

Seoul seems to be ready to retaliate, by stopping some of the joint projects. Contrary to what it seems, most of those projects are actually not based on reciprocity: the North gets much more, and in some cases these projects are essentially aid in disguise. So, the Seoul politicians figure, if the South downscales economic cooperation, the North will be hurt and will have to reconsider its behavior. There have been talks about retaliating by, say, reduction of activities in the Gaeseong Industrial Park or by discontinuation of the Gaeseong city tours.

Alas, this proposal is based on misperception. North Korea is a very peculiar society, where the elite are almost entirely free from the pressures experienced by those below them. When sanctions are applied to such a regime, they seldom have a direct bearing on the elite and their lifestyle.

Sanctions usually work in an indirect way, by punishing the population which then might either rebel against the government or vote it out of power. Neither rebellion nor elections are possible in North Korea (well, elections are happening there, as everybody knows, with the approval rate of the government candidates standing at a world record high of 100 percent). As a result of sanctions the populace will die without protesting, while the elite will survive and stay in control, even if for a while they will have ride their beloved Mercedes limousines less frequently.

The only way to bring changes to North Korea is to create forces which will be able to challenge the government. This might lead to a revolution, but one cannot completely rule out that the regime will start giving in if sufficiently pressed from within. It is time to understand.

The North Korean leaders do not want changes and they have not implemented any meaningful reforms. They probably never initiate reforms, being afraid that Chinese-style reforms might trigger regime collapse if common North Koreans learn too much about South Korean prosperity and freedom.

Nonetheless, changes are happening, and these changes should be encouraged. Above all, in order to facilitate North Korea's transformation, more truth about the outside world needs to be imported. The survival of the North Korean regime now critically depends on a few important myths, and each myth is patently false and hence very vulnerable.

When the North Korean propaganda-mongers are talking to the North Korean public, they have to hide how poor their country actually is, and they also have to lie about the great respect Kim and his regime enjoys worldwide, especially in South Korea. An increase in contact with the outside world is the best way to undermine these falsities.

This is why joint projects which bring the North Korean and foreigners (especially South Koreans) together should be welcomed, even if from a purely economic point these projects appear to be just aid in disguise.

So far, there have been three projects where some interactions between North and South Koreans are taking place. The first of these projects is the Mt. Geumgang resort, where the recent incident took place. However, interaction between Northerners and Southerners is very limited here. Only a few hundred North Koreans, presumably all from the North Korean secret police, are allowed inside the resort.

Two other projects are Gaeseong city tours and Gaeseong industrial park, and those are of a very different nature. Gaeseong, the capital of Korea during the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) and city of numerous historical monuments, is located just across the DMZ, some 50 km away from Seoul. From December 2007, three hundred South Korean tourists have been allowed to visit the city every day.

The tours are heavily controlled, but still give visitors an unprecedented opportunity to glimpse into North Korean life. On the other hand, the population of one of the largest North Korean cities also sees busloads of well-dressed, well-fed, tall South Koreans, whose behavior and image clearly contradict official propaganda.

For a while, one assumes the locals will be told the visitors are just part of a tiny privileged minority in the South, but after a few months of watching busloads of tourists appear, who will believe those stories any more?

The inconvenient truth regarding South Korea's huge economic advantage will start to surface soon. It will probably take more time before it will dawn on the North Koreans that their Seoul guests are not exactly full of love and respect for the Pyongyang dynasty, either.

The Gaeseong Industrial Park is likely to have even greater impact on future relations between the two Koreas. Operations began in 2004, and as of February 2008, there were 68 South Korean companies operating in the complex. These companies employed 23,529 North Korean workers as well as 884 South Korean managers and technicians (the figures are growing fast, with the current number of workers now approaching 30,000). South Korean investors hope to cash in on the cheap labor provided by North Korea. The official minimum wage in Kaesong, as of 2007 was merely $57 (and even this amount is partially pocketed by the authorities), while the actual amount paid was only marginally higher.

This might sound abysmally low, and Gaeseong has been criticized as being nothing more than a ``slave labor camp.'' Although there is some truth in these accusations, I often wonder: Do people who criticize the Gaeseon project really think that these North Korean workers who are paid $10 or 15 a month would be better of at an authentic North Korean factory?

The average monthly salary in North Korea is $2 (yes, two US dollars a month) but one should remember that the industrial industry still provides the best-paid regular jobs in North Korea, and its employees are envied in their neighborhoods. Stories about the good life enjoyed by the Gaeseong workers are now heard as far as the border with China, virtually the other end of the country. And this is exactly what is needed.

In Gaeseong, large numbers of North and South Koreans are working together forthe first time in 60 years. The North Koreans not only learn some modern technical skills, but they also have ample opportunities to look at their Southern compatriots. Some unexpected exchanges are bound to happen, too. No doubt, they come to conclusions very different from what they are told by the official media, and in the long run this will have a great impact on the internal situation of North Korea.

Economically, ``cooperation'' with North Korea is not viable. The Pyongyang regime will remain on the receiving end forever until this regime disappears. But should we worry about it too much? The exchanges are bringing money to those in the elite, to be sure ― but they would still survive without this money. The same exchanges are bringing new ideas to the heads of the populace, and this is what should be welcomed and encouraged.

The writer is an associate professor of Kookmin University in Seoul. He can be reached at anlankov@yahoo.com.